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63-415: " Sumer is icumen in " is the incipit of a medieval English round or rota of the mid-13th century; it is also known variously as the Summer Canon and the Cuckoo Song . The line translates approximately to "Summer has come" or "Summer has arrived". The song is written in the Wessex dialect of Middle English . Although the composer's identity is unknown today, it may have been W. de Wycombe or

126-484: A severe thunderstorm warning or tornado warning is usually issued. Even more so than in winter, the jet streams play an important role in unstable and severe Northern Hemisphere weather in springtime. In recent decades, season creep has been observed, which means that many phenological signs of spring are occurring earlier in many regions by around two days per decade. Spring in the Southern Hemisphere

189-517: A miniature or an illuminated or historiated letter . Traditionally, papal bulls and encyclicals , documents issued under the authority of the Pope , are referenced by their Latin incipit. Some of the mantras , suktas from the hymns of the Vedas , conform to this usage. The idea of choosing a few words or a phrase or two, which would be placed on the spine of a book and its cover, developed slowly with

252-467: A monk at Reading Abbey , John of Fornsete  [ Wikidata ] . The manuscript in which it is preserved was copied between 1261 and 1264. This rota is the oldest known musical composition featuring six-part polyphony . It is sometimes called the Reading Rota because the earliest known copy of the composition, a manuscript written in mensural notation , was found at Reading Abbey; it

315-461: A monthly basis, with each season lasting three calendar months. The three warmest months are by definition summer , the three coldest months are winter , and the intervening gaps are spring and autumn . Meteorological spring can therefore, start on different dates in different regions. In the United States and United Kingdom , spring months are March, April, and May. In Ireland , following

378-591: A second possibility, a quantitative analysis was performed using the Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediæval English ; out of nine lexemes originally beginning with the letter F, six demonstrably retained that letter in Reading (the other three were unattested), while four retained it in Leominster (four unattested, with fetch evolving into vetch ). The Middle English Dictionary records a personal name Walterus Fartere from

441-496: A sequel of The Wicker Man , Pound's variant of the poem was used in the place of the original. Winter is icumen in, Lhude sing Goddamm, Raineth drop and staineth slop, And how the wind doth ramm! Sing: Goddamm. Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us, An ague hath my ham. Freezeth river, turneth liver, Damm you; Sing: Goddamm. Goddamm, Goddamm, 'tis why I am, Goddamm, So 'gainst the winter's balm. Sing goddamm, damm, sing goddamm, Sing goddamm, sing goddamm, DAMM. The song

504-449: A supplicio Vite donat et secum coronat in celi solio Observe, Christian, such honour! The heavenly farmer, owing to a defect in the vine, not sparing the Son, exposed him to the destruction of death. To the captives half-dead from torment, He gives them life and crowns them with himself on the throne of heaven. written " χρ̅icola " in the manuscript (see Christogram ). In

567-401: A use is an incipit and not a title is most obvious when the line breaks off in the middle of a grammatical unit (e.g., Shakespeare 's sonnet 55 "Not marble, nor the gilded monuments"). Latin legal concepts are often designated by the first few words, for example, habeas corpus for habeas corpus ad subjiciendum ("may you have the person to be subjected [to examination]") which are itself

630-415: Is also parodied by " P. D. Q. Bach " (Peter Schickele) as "Summer is a cumin seed" for the penultimate movement of his Grand Oratorio The Seasonings . Carpe diem, Sing, cuckoo sing, Death is a-comin in, Sing, cuckoo sing. death is a-comin in. Another parody is Plumber is icumen in by A. Y. Campbell : Plumber is icumen in; Bludie big tu-du. Bloweth lampe, and showeth dampe, And dripth

693-537: Is called Me-ematai ("From when"). This word is printed at the head of every subsequent page within that chapter of the tractate. In rabbinic usage, the incipit is known as the "dibur ha-matḥil" (דיבור המתחיל), or "beginning phrase", and refers to a section heading in a published monograph or commentary that typically, but not always, quotes or paraphrases a classic biblical or rabbinic passage to be commented upon or discussed. Many religious songs and prayers are known by their opening words. Sometimes an entire monograph

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756-528: Is different in several significant ways to that of the Northern Hemisphere for several reasons, including: Carnival is practiced by many Christians around the world in the days before Lent (40 days, without Sundays, before Easter). It is the first spring festival of the new year for many. Easter is the most important religious feast in the Christian liturgical year . Christians believe that Jesus

819-450: Is growing And the meadow is blooming, And the wood is coming into leaf now, Sing, cuckoo! The ewe is bleating after her lamb, The cow is lowing after her calf; The bullock is prancing, The billy-goat farting, [or "The stag cavorting"] Sing merrily, cuckoo! Cuckoo, cuckoo, You sing well, cuckoo, Never stop now. Sing, cuckoo, now; sing, cuckoo; Sing, cuckoo; sing, cuckoo, now! The celebration of summer in "Sumer

882-460: Is icumen in" is similar to that of spring in the French poetic genre known as the reverdie (lit. "re-greening"). However, there are reasons to doubt such a straightforward and naïve interpretation. The language used lacks all of the conventional springtime-renewal words of a reverdie (such as "green", "new", "begin", or "wax") except for springþ , and elements of the text, especially the cuckoo and

945-537: Is icumen in". The children's television show Strange Hill High has the song being sung by the students in The Snide Piper . This piece was parodied under the title "Ancient Music" by the American poet Ezra Pound in 1916 for his collection Lustra , but not published in the first two editions; it was published in the 1917 first American edition. In The Loathsome Lambton Worm , the unproduced script treatment for

1008-650: Is known by its "dibur hamatḥil". The published mystical and exegetical discourses of the Chabad-Lubavitch rebbes (called "ma'amarim"), derive their titles almost exclusively from the "dibur ha-matḥil" of the individual work's first chapter. The final book of the New Testament , the Book of Revelation , is often known as the Apocalypse after the first word of the original Greek text, ἀποκάλυψις apokalypsis "revelation", to

1071-513: Is named for the first words spoken in the episode (leading to episode titles such as "What I don't understand is this..." and "Um...I know what you're thinking"). Musical incipits are printed in standard music notation. They typically feature the first few bars of a piece, often with the most prominent musical material written on a single staff (the examples given at right show both the single-staff and full-score incipit variants). Incipits are especially useful in music because they can call to mind

1134-421: Is not always determined by fixed calendar dates. The phenological or ecological definition of spring relates to biological indicators, such as the blossoming of a range of plant species, the activities of animals, and the special smell of soil that has reached the temperature for micro flora to flourish. These indicators, along with the beginning of spring, vary according to the local climate and according to

1197-449: Is not as secure as the number of editors that have championed it might imply". The evolution of verteþ could not have originated in the unattested Old English feortan , in part because there is a gap of between 100 and 120 years between the first unambiguous usage of that word and its postulated use in Sumer is icumen in . Given that the poem was likely composed in Reading, with Leominster as

1260-609: Is one of the four temperate seasons , succeeding winter and preceding summer . There are various technical definitions of spring, but local usage of the term varies according to local climate, cultures and customs. When it is spring in the Northern Hemisphere , it is autumn in the Southern Hemisphere and vice versa. At the spring (or vernal) equinox , days and nights are approximately twelve hours long, with daytime length increasing and nighttime length decreasing as

1323-795: Is repeated by one person as many times as necessary, pausing at the end. Pes 2: hoc dicit alius pausans in medio et non in fine inmediate repetens principium. - this is sung by another person with a pause in the middle, but not at the end, repeating the beginning straight away. "Sumer is icumen in" in modern notation: Middle English Sumer is icumen in Lhude sing cuccu Groweþ sed and bloweþ med and springþ þe wde nu Sing cuccu Awe bleteþ after lomb lhouþ after calue cu Bulluc sterteþ bucke uerteþ murie sing cuccu Cuccu cuccu Wel singes þu cuccu ne swik þu nauer nu Sing cuccu nu • Sing cuccu. Sing cuccu • Sing cuccu nu Modern English Summer has arrived, Loudly sing, cuckoo! The seed

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1386-632: Is still pushing from the Polar regions . Flooding is also most common in and near mountainous areas during this time of year, because of snow-melt which is accelerated by warm rains. In North America, Tornado Alley is most active at this time of year, especially since the Rocky Mountains prevent the surging hot and cold air masses from spreading eastward, and instead force them into direct conflict. Besides tornadoes , supercell thunderstorms can also produce dangerously large hail and very high winds, for which

1449-585: The Gregorian Calendar for the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches using the Julian Calendar ). In this celebration, the children do an easter egg hunt. The First of May is the date of many public holidays . In many countries, May Day is synonymous with International Workers' Day , or Labour Day , which celebrates the social and economic achievements of the labour movement . As a day of celebration,

1512-484: The Irish calendar , spring is often defined as February, March, and April. In Sweden , meteorologists define the beginning of spring as the first occasion on which the average 24 hours temperature exceeds zero degrees Celsius for seven consecutive days, thus the date varies with latitude and elevation (but no earlier than 15 February, and no later than 31 July). In Australia , New Zealand , South Africa and Brazil

1575-487: The Old English springan . These were verbs meaning to rise up or to burst forth, (see also the modern German springen 'jump') and are not believed to have originally related to the season. These all originate from Proto-Germanic *sprenganan. Meteorologists generally define four seasons in many climatic areas: spring, summer, autumn (fall), and winter. These are determined by the values of their average temperatures on

1638-400: The summer solstice (around 21 June) marked as first day of summer. By solar reckoning, Spring is held to begin 1 February until the first day of Summer on May Day , with the summer and winter solstices being marked as Midsummer and Midwinter respectively, instead of as the beginning of the season as is the case with astronomical reckoning. In Persian culture the first day of spring is

1701-509: The 1938 film The Adventures of Robin Hood , Little John ( Alan Hale Sr. ) is whistling the melody of the song just before he first meets Robin Hood played by Errol Flynn . According to Lisa Colton, "Although it appears only this once, in that fleeting moment the tune serves to introduce the character through performance: the melody was presumably sufficiently recognisable to be representative of medieval English music, but perhaps, more importantly,

1764-615: The Sun, the weather in many parts of the world is affected by other, less predictable events. The rainfall in spring (or any season) follows trends more related to longer cycles—such as the solar cycle —or events created by ocean currents and ocean temperatures—for example, the El Niño effect and the Southern Oscillation Index . Unstable spring weather may occur more often when warm air begins to invade from lower latitudes , while cold air

1827-566: The archives, and the width of a clay tablet and its resolution did not permit long entries. An example from Lerner (1998): Honored and noble warrior Where are the sheep Where are the wild oxen And with you I did not In our city In former days Many books in the Hebrew Bible are named in Hebrew using incipits. For instance, the first book (Genesis) is called Bereshit ("In the beginning ...") and Lamentations , which begins "How lonely sits

1890-613: The beginning of summer. The Passover begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan , which typically falls in March or April of the Gregorian calendar on the night of a full moon after the northern spring equinox . However, due to leap months falling after the vernal equinox, Passover sometimes starts on the second full moon after vernal equinox, as in 2016. Jews celebrate this holiday to commemorate their escape from slavery in Egypt as described in

1953-562: The biblical psalms used as prayers during services are always titled with the first word or words of the text. Protestant hymns of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are also traditionally titled with an incipit. In computer science, long strings of characters may be referred to by their incipits, particularly encryption keys or product keys . Notable examples include FCKGW (used by Windows XP ) and 09 F9 (used by Advanced Access Content System ). Other sources Spring (season) Spring , also known as springtime ,

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2016-658: The birth of printing , and the idea of a title page with a short title and subtitle came centuries later, replacing earlier, more verbose titles. The modern use of standardized titles, combined with the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD), have made the incipit obsolete as a tool for organizing information in libraries. However, incipits are still used to refer to untitled poems, songs, and prayers, such as Gregorian chants , operatic arias, many prayers and hymns, and numerous poems, including those of Emily Dickinson . That such

2079-447: The blooming of deciduous magnolias, cherries, and quince. Many temperate areas have a dry spring, and wet autumn (fall), which brings about flowering in this season, more consistent with the need for water, as well as warmth. Subarctic areas may not experience "spring" at all until May. While spring is a result of the warmth caused by the changing orientation of the Earth's axis relative to

2142-530: The book of Exodus in the Torah . Foods consumed during Passover seders , such as lamb and barley, are tied to springtime seasonal availability. In this celebration, children recite the Four Questions during the seder and hunt for the afikoman afterwards. The Western Christian season encompassing the triduum of All Saints' Eve ( Halloween ), All Saints' Day (All Hallows') and All Souls' Day are observed in

2205-710: The calendar of the close rolls of 1234, and another name Johannes le Fartere from the Leicestershire lay subsidy rolls of 1327. This also implies the existence of a word farten or ferten in Middle English, both with an initial letter F . Beneath the Middle English lyrics in the manuscript, there is also a set of Latin lyrics which consider the sacrifice of the Crucifixion of Jesus : Perspice Christicola que dignacio Celicus agricola pro vitis vicio Filio non parcens exposuit mortis exicio Qui captivos semiuiuos

2268-461: The children of England from indecency. Similarly, Arthur K. Moore states: The older anthologists sometimes made ludicrous attempts to gloss 'buck uerteth' in a way tolerable to Victorian sensibilities. Most recent editors have recognized what every farm boy knows—that quadrupeds disport themselves in the spring precisely as the poet has said. To the fourteenth century, the idea was probably inoffensive. According to Platzer, "this traditional reading

2331-434: The city...", is called Eykha ("How"). A readily recognized one is the "Shema" or Shema Yisrael in the Torah : "Hear O Israel..." – the first words of the proclamation encapsulating Judaism's monotheism (see beginning Deuteronomy 6:4 and elsewhere). All the names of Parashot are incipits, the title coming from a word, occasionally two words, in its first two verses. The first in each book is, of course, called by

2394-536: The development of titles , texts were often referred to by their incipits, as with for example Agnus Dei . During the medieval period in Europe, incipits were often written in a different script or colour from the rest of the work of which they were a part, and "incipit pages" might be heavily decorated with illumination . Though the word incipit is Latin, the practice of the incipit predates classical antiquity by several millennia and can be found in various parts of

2457-439: The fact that Little John is whistling the song emphasizes his peasant status...In Robin Hood , Little John's performance of 'Sumer is icumen in' locates him socially as a contented, lower class male, a symbol of the romanticized ideal of the medieval peasant". The rendition sung at the climax of the 1973 British film The Wicker Man is a mixed translation by Anthony Shaffer : Sumer is Icumen in, Loudly sing, cuckoo! Grows

2520-418: The farmyard noises, potentially possess double meanings. "It is the wrong bird, the wrong season, and the wrong language for a reverdie , unless an ironic meaning is intended". The translation of "bucke uerteþ" is uncertain. Some (such as Millett 2003d , in the version given above) translate the former word as "buck-goat" and the latter as "passes wind" (with reconstructed OE spelling feortan ). Platzer, on

2583-619: The first day of the first month (called Farvardin ) which begins on 20 or 21 March. In the traditional Chinese calendar , the "spring" season ( 春 ) consists of the days between Lichun (3–5 February), taking Chunfen (20–22 March) as its midpoint, then ending at Lixia (5–7 May). Similarly, according to the Celtic tradition , which is based solely on daylight and the strength of the noon sun, spring begins in early February (near Imbolc or Candlemas ) and continues until early May ( Beltane ), with Saint Patrick's Day (17 March) being regarded as

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2646-468: The first gets to the point marked with the red cross in the first figure below. The length between the start and the cross corresponds to the modern notion of a bar , and the main verse comprises six phrases spread over twelve such bars. In addition, there are two lines marked "Pes", two bars each, that are meant to be sung together repeatedly underneath the main verse. These instructions are included (in Latin) in

2709-496: The hibernal (winter) and vernal (spring) seasons. This is a time when only the hardiest flowers like the crocus are in bloom, sometimes while there is still some snowcover on the ground. During early spring, the axis of the Earth is increasing its tilt relative to the Sun, and the length of daylight rapidly increases for the relevant hemisphere. The hemisphere begins to warm significantly, causing new plant growth to "spring forth", giving

2772-456: The holiday has ancient origins, and it can relate to many customs that have survived into modern times. Many of these customs are due to May Day being a cross-quarter day , meaning that (in the Northern Hemisphere where it is almost exclusively celebrated) it falls approximately halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice . In the Celtic tradition, this date marked the end of spring and

2835-535: The key words of a much longer writ. Many word processors propose the first few words of a document as a default file name, assuming that the incipit may correspond to the intended title of the document. The space-filling, or place-holding, text lorem ipsum is known as such from its incipit. Occasionally, incipits have been used for humorous effect, such as in the Alan Plater -written television series The Beiderbecke Affair and its sequels, in which each episode

2898-544: The manuscript itself: Hanc rotam cantare possunt quatuor socii. A paucio/ribus autem q u am a tribus u e l saltem duobus no n debet/ dici pret er eos qui dicu n t pedem. Canit ur aute m sic. Tacen/tibus ceteris unus inchoat cu m hiis q u i tene n t pede m . Et cu m uenerit/ ad p r imam notam post cruce m , inchoat alius, et sic de ceteris./ Singuli de ue ro repausent ad pausac i ones sc r iptas et /n on alibi, spacio unius longe note. Four companions can sing this round. But it should not be sung by fewer than three, or at

2961-672: The middle day of spring. Late Roman Republic scholar Marcus Terentius Varro defined spring as lasting from the seventh day before the Ides of Februarius (7 February) to the eighth day before the Ides of Maius (8 May). The spring season in India is culturally in the months of March and April, with an average temperature of approx 32 °C. Some people in India especially from Karnataka state celebrate their new year in spring, Ugadi . The beginning of spring

3024-462: The other hand, views the latter, more vulgar, gloss as informed by "prejudices against mediæval culture" and suspects that those preferring it "may have had an axe to grind". Erickson derided "linguistic Galahads" for promoting more decent translations, suggesting: Editorial prudishness has kept that fine little Middle English poem, the Cuckoo Song, out of many a school-book, all because the old poet

3087-640: The point where that word has become synonymous with what the book describes, i.e. the End of Days ( ἔσχατον eschaton "[the] last" in the original). Each chapter in the Quran, with the exception of the ninth, begins with Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Rahim -- meaning "in the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful." Incipits are generally, but not always, in red in medieval manuscripts. They may come before

3150-506: The reader's own musical memory of the work where a printed title would fail to do so. Musical incipits appear both in catalogs of music and in the tables of contents of volumes that include multiple works. In choral music, sacred or secular pieces from before the 20th century were often titled with the incipit text. For instance, the proper of the Catholic Mass and the Latin transcriptions of

3213-612: The same name as the book as a whole. Some of the Psalms are known by their incipits, most noticeably Psalm 51 (Septuagint numbering: Psalm 50), which is known in Western Christianity by its Latin incipit Miserere ("Have mercy"). In the Talmud , the chapters of the Gemara are titled in print and known by their first words, e.g. the first chapter of Mesekhet Berachot ("Benedictions")

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3276-514: The season its name. Any snow begins to melt, swelling streams with runoff and any frosts become less severe. In climates that have no snow, and rare frosts, air and ground temperatures increase more rapidly. Many flowering plants bloom at this time of year, in a long succession, sometimes beginning when snow is still on the ground and continuing into early summer. In normally snowless areas, "spring" may begin as early as February (Northern Hemisphere) or August (Southern Hemisphere), heralded by

3339-553: The season progresses until the Summer Solstice in June (Northern Hemisphere) and December (Southern Hemisphere). Spring and "springtime" refer to the season, and also to ideas of rebirth, rejuvenation, renewal, resurrection and regrowth. Subtropical and tropical areas have climates better described in terms of other seasons, e.g. dry or wet, monsoonal or cyclonic. Cultures may have local names for seasons which have little equivalence to

3402-415: The seed and blows the mead, And springs the wood anew; Sing, cuckoo! Ewe bleats harshly after lamb, Cows after calves make moo; Bullock stamps and deer champs, Now shrilly sing, cuckoo! Cuckoo, cuckoo Wild bird are you; Be never still, cuckoo! In the children's television programme Bagpuss , the mice sing a song called "The Mouse Organ Song (We Will Fix It)", to a tune adapted from "Sumer

3465-493: The specific weather of a particular year. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the National Trust runs the # BlossomWatch campaign, which encourages people to share images of blossom with one another, as an early indicator of the arrival of the season. Some ecologists divide the year into six seasons. In addition to spring, ecological reckoning identifies an earlier separate prevernal (early or pre-spring) season between

3528-501: The spring months are September, October, and November. In the Northern Hemisphere (with countries such as Germany, the United States, Canada, and the UK), solar reckoning was traditionally used with the solstices and equinoxes representing the midpoints of each season, however, the astronomical vernal equinox (varying between 19 and 21 March) can be taken to mark the first day of spring with

3591-559: The terms originating in Europe. According to the Online Etymological Dictionary , "spring" in the sense of the season comes from phrases such as "springing time" (14th century) and "the spring of the year". This use is from an archaic noun meaning "act or time of springing or appearing; the first appearance; the beginning, birth, rise, or origin". Spring as a word in general appeared via the Middle English springen , via

3654-510: The very least, two in addition to those who sing the pes . This is how it is sung. While all the others are silent, one person begins at the same time as those who sing the ground. And when he comes to the first note after the cross [which marks the end of the first two bars], another singer is to begin, and thus for the others. Each shall observe the written rests for the space of one long note [triplet], but not elsewhere. Pes 1: hoc repetit unus quociens opus est faciens pausacionem in fine. - it

3717-420: The world. Although not always called by the name of incipit today, the practice of referring to texts by their initial words remains commonplace. In the clay tablet archives of Sumer , catalogs of documents were kept by making special catalog tablets containing the incipits of a given collection of tablets. The catalog was meant to be used by the very limited number of official scribes who had access to

3780-446: The wud thru. Bludie hel, boo-hoo! Thaweth drain, and runneth bath; Saw saweth, and scrueth scru; Bull-kuk squirteth, leake spurteth; Wurry springeth up anew, Boo-hoo, boo-hoo. Tom Pugh, Tom Pugh, well plumbes thu, Tom Pugh; Better job I naver nu. Therefore will I cease boo-hoo, Woorie not, but cry pooh-pooh, Murie sing pooh-pooh, pooh-pooh, Pooh-pooh! Notes References Sources Incipit Before

3843-574: Was resurrected from the dead on the "third day" (two days after his crucifixion ), and celebrate this resurrection on Easter Day, two days after Good Friday . Since the Last Supper was a Passover Seder , the date of Easter can be calculated as the first Sunday after the start of Passover. This is usually (see Passover below) the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox. The date of Easter varies between 22 March and 25 April (which corresponds to between 4 April and 8 May in

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3906-431: Was familiar with English barn-yards and meadows and in his poem recalled those sights and sounds. He knew that bullocks and bucks feel so good in the springtime that they can hardly contain themselves, and he set down what he saw and heard, leaving it to squeamish editors to distort one of his innocent folk-words into a meaning that he would not recognise. One suspects that scholarly ingenuity has been overworked [...] to save

3969-407: Was probably not drafted there, however. The British Library now retains this manuscript. A copy of the manuscript in stone relief is displayed on the wall of the ruined chapter house of Reading Abbey. A rota (Latin for 'wheel') is a type of round , which in turn is a kind of part song . To perform the round, one singer begins the song, and a second starts singing the beginning again just as

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