Song of Summer

This is another anonymous lyric that hails from Latin descent and the eleventh century is called Song of Summer. The lyric depicts an array of birds and how they all sing their own song. The author specifies of the certain birds in the lyric and their various types of song; turtledove’s moans, a sparrow’s chatter, a nightingale singing, and eagle soaring and singing, a lark’s melodies, and a swallow’s call.(Anonymous) The birds all have their own distinct song, or voice and purpose in the world, and each one is highlight in this lyric. But if you read properly the lyric also gives light on how the songs all work together. Although each bird, or spirit perhaps, has its own identity they can still be seen as a whole through the one song, made up of their individual songs. The lyric is said to be a “conventional description of what is understood in terms of the book of nature”(Anonymous) and when read together the lyric is really talking about a hidden message of a creator God. The lyric says “thus birds everywhere sing the song of summer” (Anonymous) that shows that every bird has its own song, and its own time in the season and that it is of something greater. This can be related also to people, every soul has its own song or identity, and its own place on this world. The something greater is attributed to the creator God. The lyric shows a good correlation of how basic nature can sometimes reveal greater truths.

Bibliography

Anonymous. “The Ruin” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Volume A. 3^rd Ed. Martin Puchner. New York: Norton 1334-1344. Print