'Tis a beautiful morning in May and I'm grateful for sites like this one.
'Tis like the birthday of the world,
When earth was born in bloom;
The light is made of many dyes,
The air is all perfume:
There's crimson buds, and white and blue,
The very rainbow showers
Have turned to blossoms where they fell,
And sown the earth with flowers.
And if there is half a chance of sneaking Middle English back into 21st century usage, I will take it:
In somer when the shawes be sheyne,
And leves be large and long,
Hit is full merry in feyre foreste
To here the foulys song.To see the dere draw to the dale
And leve the hilles hee,
And shadow him in the leves grene
Under the green-wode tree.Hit befell on Whitsontide
Early in a May mornyng,
The Sonne up faire can shyne,
And the briddis mery can syng
.
- Anonymous, May in the Green Wode, 15h Century
And then, once again, all together now: Sumer is icumen in!