I Synge of a Mayden – A Reading

Medieval English lyrics: "I syng of a mayden" (I sing of a maiden). Reading and analysis

"I Syng of a Mayden" is one of the most beautiful and carefully crafted lyrics in MiddleEnglish — a poem about the Annunciation and the Immaculate Conception that conceals, beneath ...its apparent simplicity, a remarkable density of allusion and wordplay.

This video offers a reading of the poem in its original Middle English, followed by a close analysis. Why dew rather than rain? Why April specifically? What is the significance of the threefold repetition — grass, flower, spray — and how does it reflect Christian doctrine? And what does "makeles" — matchless — really mean in the context of the final stanza?

The poem draws on Psalm 72, the symbolism of dew as a conventional image of the Holy Spirit, and the medieval calendar's retention of Roman dating — all woven into a lyric of extraordinary economy and grace.

0:00 Introduction
0:14 Reading (original text)
0:58 Reading (in modern English)
1:34 Commentary & analysis

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