Author: Ano Sensei
Format: Video
Structure: Alliterative verse, Short lyric
Related content:
- • Westron Wynde – A Reading (Video)
Westron Wynde (Western Wind) — Medieval Lyric: Reading and Analysis
Is the west wind a spring wind bringing relief, or an autumn wind intensifying suffering? Is the invocation of Christ blasphemous or heartfelt — or both? And what is it about this tiny fragment that gives it such universal appeal? As Charles Frey argues, the poem stands at the intersection of pleasure and pain — capturing what he calls "the incalculable duality of desire."
0:00 Introduction
0:12 The melody
0:57 Reading (original text)
1:20 Reading (in modern English)
1:33 Analysis
2:27 Charles Frey's paper
2:51 Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales"
3:09 "Christ"
3:34 The musical accompaniment
3:48 Interpreting the overall meaning
4:22 The juxtaposition of the first two lines and the second two
5:10 The manuscript
5:35 Alliteration
6:08 Words, music and images
My medieval playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSgwv...
If your language is not included in the subtitles, let me know and I will add it.
Westron wynde when wyll thow blow
the smalle rayne downe can Rayne
Cryst yf my love were in my Armys
And I yn my bed Agayne.
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4 Comments
0:00 Introduction
0:12 The melody
0:57 Reading (original text)
1:20 Reading (in modern English)
1:33 Analysis
2:27 Charles Frey’s paper
2:51 Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales”
3:09 “Christ”
3:34 The musical accompaniment
3:48 Interpreting the overall meaning
4:22 The juxtaposition of the first two lines and the second two
5:10 The manuscript
5:35 Alliteration
6:08 Words, music and images
Just want to say again how lovely this is. The graphics and the harpsichord or clavichord music are fantastic! The photos and rain sound with the old English words are beautiful and comforting. And I’m so grateful to hear the actual pronunciation of these words.
I had to stop listening about 3 minutes short of the end, but I never thought of this as a traveler getting rained on, because it says he’s wishing for these gentle rains. (Perhaps a harbinger of Spring, as you say.) He’s clearly asking for the winds to bring this and maybe bring sooner the time he can be home with his love. (If ever?) (Is he a soldier? Who knows.)
The expletive isn’t So blasphemous, though I guess by definition it is – but it seems a natural expression of the urgency being felt: apparently people haven’t changed that much in half a millennium or so! It doesn’t seem like really a prayer, either. Your explanations of this were very sensible.
You certainly brought a lot to this tiny poem. I only heard it once: from a college friend who later dropped out and decided just to work. She gave a tender recitation of this sweet verse and it stuck in my head forevermore. (That was over half a century ago.) It pops up when I’m sad and I wanted to hear it recited or sung. Thank you a thousand times for this beautiful, educational presentation, Professor sir!
– An American one-time art major
This is very nice. Very pretty, too! – I wonder why hardly anyone says the version that goes, “… That the small rain down can rain.” That is how I heard it and it makes so much more sense. Are you sure that way is inaccurate? Scholars say there are different versions of this lovely old verse or fragment.
For a sung version of this, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqBzLfev2XM