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But when I read Chaucer I am forced to the conclusion that what he tried to do was precisely that: to imitate French music; to write English without regard to syllabic accent. The English lyrics of his time and earlier depend on the principle of accent: Sum' mer is' i-cum' en in, Loud' e sing' cuccu';
Perhaps you may be able to read it in that, so here it is: "Sumer is ycumen in, Lhude sing cuccu; Groweth sed, and bloweth med, And springth the wde nu, Sing cuccu! Awe bleteth after lomb, Lhouth after calve cu; Bulluc sterteth, bucke verteth, Murie sing cuccu. Cuccu, cuccu, well singes thu cuccu, Ne swike thu naver nu. Sing cuccu, nu, sing cuccu, Sing cuccu, sing cuccu, nu!"*
Sometimes this freshness seems due in part to the poet's early place in the development of his national literature: he has had, as it were, the first chance at his particular subject. There were countless springs, of course, before a nameless poet, about 1250, wrote one of the first English lyrics for which we have a contemporary musical score: "Sumer is icumen in, Lhude sing cuccu."
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