oh to be a bunny bundled up in bed, reading poetry on a cool fall morning

(don't get it scrambled in the bramble, she DOESN'T enjoy chaucer, but she loves posing for pictures and looking pictures)

(note, i am not a scholar, i could get things wrong) "blow, northerne wind" is a middle english lyric in a mid-14th century manuscript (Harley MS 2253), tho it may be older than that, and might have been a popular folk song.

Ichot a burde in boure bryht,
That fully semly is on syht,
Menskful maiden of myht;
Feir ant fre to fonde;
In al this wurhliche won
A burde of blod ant of bon
Never yete y nuste non
Lussomore in londe.
Blow northerne wynd!
Send thou me my suetyng!
Blow northerne wynd! blow, blow, blow!

it is a secular love song, and i'm enamored with it because it tickles a very particular interest of mine. old english poetry was primarily built on alliteration, rather than rhyme. most preserved old english poetry uses an unrhymed line of four beats (the exact syllable count didn't mater), where at least the first and third beat MUST alliterate, and there's a brief pause in the middle. "FO ic under FOT, (pause) FUNDE ic HIT." in alliterative verse, alliteration isn't a decoration, it's rather part of the rhythm of the poem.

i have rly wondered what music based on this alliterative meter would sound like, but, although its possible that at least some OE poetry was performed to musical accompaniment, there's no actual preserved old english music. i even experimented with writing my own song using the meter, but i honestly struggled with the pause in the middle.

anyways, blow northerne wind (which is, at latest, from three centuries after the end of the "old english"/"anglo saxon" culture) uses a very cool aaabaaab rhyme scheme, but it ALSO has alliteration which is so pervasive as to tickle the "structural alliteration" sense i get from full on alliterative verse poetry. the alliteration happens on at least two of the four beats of every single line, although it's very free with which beats alliterate. but it just sounds soooooooooooooooo pretty and also startlingly similar in feeling to my experimental alliterative song.

it also has some really pretty lyrics.

Hire lure[18] lumes[19] liht,
(her face illumes light)
Ase a launterne a-nyht,
(as a lantern in the night)
Hire bleo[20] blykyeth so bryht,
(her colors shine so bright)
So feyr heo is ant fyn.
(so fair she is and fine)

like i just think thats sweet. i love "as a lantern in the night".

here is me shoddily singing the words to an improvised melody. note that NOTHING about this melody is historically informed in ANY WAY. in fact, i can almost guarentee you it would have sounded nothing like this, because this melody is in 5/4. for reasons. also my middle english pronunciation is probably very inaccurate. sorry.

here is an exerpt of the poem on wikisource https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Oxford_Book_of_English_Verse_1250-1918/Blow,_Northern_Wind

and in this blog post, they talk about a cool extra verse thats not in the wikisource version but comes from the manuscript, and they do a much more historically informed speculation at what it might have sounded like https://annatam.co.uk/blow-northerne-wynd/