Sumer Is Icumen In
Above, from left to right: Calendar page for April, from The Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry, 1405???1408/1409. Pol, Jean, and Herman de Limbourg (Franco-Netherlandish, active in France, by 1399???1416). French; Made in Paris. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Cloisters Collection, 1954 (54.1.1); detail of the activity for the month; detail of the zodiacal symbol Taurus. See the Collection Database to learn more about this work of art.
Sumer is icumen in, Summer has come in, Lhude sing cuccu! Loudly sing, Cuckoo! Growe?? sed and blowe?? med The seed grows and the meadow blooms And spring?? ??e wde nu, And the wood springs anew, Sing cuccu! Sing, Cuckoo! Awe blete?? after lomb, The ewe bleats after the lamb Lhou?? after calue cu. The cow lows after the calf. Bulluc sterte??, bucke uerte??, The bullock stirs, the stag farts, Murie sing cuccu! Merrily sing, Cuckoo! Cuccu, cuccu, wel singes ??u cuccu; Cuckoo, cuckoo, well you sing, cuckoo; Ne swik ??u nauer nu. Don’t you ever stop now, Pes: Sing cuccu nu. Sing cuccu. Sing cuckoo now. Sing, Cuckoo. Sing cuccu. Sing cuccu nu! Sing Cuckoo. Sing cuckoo now! ???From the Middle English round “Sumer is Icumen in.”
The outdoor pleasures of April depicted in medieval calendars were a prelude to the amours of May, and April is the month in which the cuckoo begins to call. Cuculus canorus is a summer migrant that winters in Africa and returns to Europe in the spring. Throughout medieval and Renaissance literature, the song of the cuckoo heralds both the return of spring and of the season of love, as in the famous round “Sumer is Icumen In.” (View the musical notation for “Sumer is Icumen In.”) Read more »