The HyperTexts
Fowles in the Frith: Modern English Translations with a Summary and
Analysis of the Poem's History, Poetic Devices, Theme and Content
Who wrote "Fowles in the Frith"? No one knows who wrote
the famous little poem, but what we
do know is that it's a stunning little
lyric—one of the best early rhyming poems in the English language.
"Fowles in the Frith" is an anonymous Medieval English
lyric poem, circa the 13th-14th century AD. This page contains the original poem
with a word-for-word modern English translation, two looser modern English
translations, translation notes, a summary, and a brief analysis. The poem can
also be found on YouTube in the form of songs, and it has also been published in
sheet music lyrics. As one commentator noted,
we're lucky to have the poem today because "Fowles in the Frith" was
"written on one page of a manuscript of legal texts, noted [jotted] down by some monk
going about his labor, or we would not have it." It could have been a song
sung by wandering minstrels that the monk heard and recorded, although that's
speculation on my part.
Fowles in the Frith
(Anonymous Medieval English Lyric, circa
13th-14th century AD)
loose translation/interpretation by
Michael R. Burch
The warblers in the wood,
the fishes in the flood
and I must go mad:
such sorrow I've had
for beasts of bone and blood!
"Fowles in the Frith" appears on the surface to be a poem written by a someone
who sympathizes with the plight of the earth's animals. However, I am going to
propose an alternate reading of the poem. Do we really see birds and fish going
mad everywhere? Or does it only seem the whole world has gone mad when
we're in love and things aren't working out the way we had hoped and dreamed? I
propose that the word beste in the original poem is wordplay, with
beste meaning both "the best of bone and blood" and "the beast of bone and
blood." Is the poet saying that his lover is the best creature living, and yet
she is also a beast because she has spurned his advances? If so, "Fowles in the
Frith" could be the first, or at least one of the very earliest, English poems
in the "courtly tradition" of male lover complaints like
Geoffrey Chaucer's "Merciless
Beauty" and William Dunbar's "Sweet
Rose of Virtue" (in which the male poet accuses his lover of being heartless
and cruel because she refuses to have sex with him!).
The following poem was written "under the influence" of this ancient verse:
After the Poetry Recital
by Michael R. Burch
Later there’ll be talk of saving whales
over racks of lamb and flambéed snails.
Analysis of the History, Poetic Devices, Theme and Content of "Fowles in the Frith"
HISTORY: "Fowles in the Frith" is short lyric poem. It is a very early example of an English
metrical rhymed poem. The original rhyme scheme was abbab, with
alliteration in each line that harkens back to older Anglo-Saxon poetry (also
called "Old
English" poetry). Anglo-Saxon poetry was more Germanic that modern English
poetry because the Angles and Saxons were Germanic tribes. (The name England
derives from Angle-land.) When the Angles and Saxons migrated to England in
large numbers, they brought their language, culture and poetry with them.
Anglo-Saxon poetry was primarily alliterative and did not employ regular meter
or rhyme. But after England was invaded and conquered by the Normans in 1066,
under William the Conqueror, there were continental influences as well, and two
of those influences were the use of meter and rhyme in poetry.
POETIC DEVICES: The poetic devices employed include meter, rhyme, alliteration,
imagery, and possibly symbolism or metaphor (the latter is addressed in the
Translator's Notes below, as is the poet's use of alliteration).
THEME AND CONTENT: The poet sounds suspiciously like an animal rights activist! The use of "and" is intriguing ...
is the poet saying or suggesting that his walks in the wood drive him mad because he is also a
"beast of bone and blood," facing a similar fate? While some readers
have interpreted the poem to be metaphorically a love poem, a religious poem about Jesus Christ
and/or the Virgin Mary, and/or a poem
of alienation, in this case Occam's Razor may apply: the most likely answer
seems to be that the speaker feels intense sympathy (or sorrow) for the animals he
sees suffering around him. Whether that sympathy extends to the speaker himself is not
altogether obvious, but that little innocuous word "and" does suggest such a connection. One
might even interpret the speaker to be saying that everything is going mad
together: the birds, the fish, the other beasts, and human beings like himself.
But as I mentioned previously, it seems possible that the poet was accusing his
lover of driving him mad, and only making it seem like the rest of the world had
gone mad as well.
Here are alternate translations with translation notes:
Fowles in the Frith
(Anonymous Medieval English Lyric, circa
13th-14th century AD)
loose translation/interpretation by
Michael R. Burch
The fowls in the forest,
the fishes in the flood
and I must go mad: ...
such sorrow I've had
for beasts of bone and blood!
Translator's Notes: The original poem rhymed abbab, but the "frith"/"with" rhyme
just isn't going to work in modern English. Furthermore, the ancient scop was
using alliteration: fowles/frith, fisshes/flood, waxe/wood, walke/with, beste/boon/blood.
In the first translation, I went for alliteration and rhyme, hence warblers/wood. In the
second version I dropped end rhyme in the first line and stuck a bit closer to
the scop's original opening line. You can choose whichever version you prefer,
or go back to the original poem if you like it better:
Fowles in the Frith (Original Medieval English Lyric)
Fowles in the frith,
The birds in the wood,
The fisshes in the flood,
The fishes in the flood
And I mon waxe wood:
And I must go mad:
Much sorwe I walke with
Much sorrow I walk with
For beste of boon and blood. For beasts of bone and
blood.
An alternate interpretation is that "beste" is not "beast" but "the best."
Fowles in the frith,
The birds in the wood,
The fisshes in the flood,
The fishes in the flood
And I mon waxe wood:
And I must go mad:
Much sorwe I walke with
Much sorrow I walk with
For beste of boon and blood. For the best of bone and
blood.
In this
interpretation the last line might mean "for the best of bone and
blood" or "for the best creature living." The "best creature living" could be a
lover, or some other person known to the poet, or a saint, or the Virgin Mary or Jesus Christ. Or the ambiguity
could be intentional.
But is it possible that the poet is punning on "best" and "beast" and actually
intends both?
Fowles in the frith,
The birds in the wood,
The fisshes in the flood,
The fishes in the flood
And I mon waxe wood:
And I must go mad:
Much sorwe I walke with
Much sorrow I walk with
For beste of boon and blood. For the best/beast of bone and
blood.
If the poet is referring to his lover, is he calling her both the "best" and a
"beast" because she rejected him and/or treated him badly? I pick up
on this idea in
Interpretation #15 below. The
Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature says "frith" means both "woods" and
"divine law." So the scop may have been punning on multiple meanings
of certain words. In any case, it's
marvelous little poem―one with attributes of
Old English poetry
(alliteration in each line) and Middle English poetry (meter and rhyme).
The poem can be taken at face value, or it can be interpreted metaphorically.
Here are fifteen different possible interpretations, and there are probably more
...
Interpretation #1: The speaker, taken literally, sympathizes with the plight of
birds, fish and other living creatures.
Interpretation #2: The speaker sees all the suffering around him and it makes
him think of his lover.
Interpretation #3: The speaker is thinking of the "best creature" he knows―perhaps
his lover, his mother, a saintly person, the Virgin Mary, or Jesus Christ.
Interpretation #4: The speaker is going mad and rejects his own flesh.
Interpretation #5: The speaker is a vegetarian or early PETA-type, in a world
full of carnivores!
Interpretation #6: The speaker envies the (assumed) harmonious natural state of other creatures and
regrets his "unnatural" lust and fallen state.
Interpretation #7: The speaker empathizes with Christ, who, unlike the foxes,
had nowhere to lay his head.
Interpretation #8: The speaker feels alienated and estranged from the natural world and its
creatures.
Interpretation #9: The "bone" and "blood" are phallic and the poem is sexual in
nature.
Interpretation #10: The speaker is Adam, walking through the fallen Garden of
Eden.
Interpretation #11: All nature is upset by the speaker being separated from his
lover.
Interpretation #12: The "best of bone and blood" is the speaker's beloved.
Interpretation #13: The speaker is Merlin, who has gone mad and is living like
"sylvan man" or animal.
Interpretation #14: The speaker belongs to the Celtic wild man tradition; he is
a wodewose, a "wild man of the woods."
Interpretation #15: The speaker has been spurned by his lover, who is both "the
best" and a "beast," making this poem an early
example of the "courtly love poem" in which a male would-be lover complains
that the object of his affection has been cruel and unfair by denying him sex!
Wonderful examples of this genre include Geoffrey Chaucer's "Merciless
Beauty" and William Dunbar's "Sweet
Rose of Virtue" (I have translated both poems).
Or perhaps this little poem's power lies ultimately in its ambiguity: we don't
know exactly what the speaker means, but we can sense and feel his
grief, dismay and powerlessness.
The following are links to other translations by Michael R. Burch:
The Seafarer
Wulf and Eadwacer
The Love Song of Shu-Sin: The Earth's Oldest Love Poem?
Sweet Rose of Virtue
How Long the Night
Caedmon's Hymn
Anglo-Saxon Riddles and Kennings
Bede's Death Song
The Wife's Lament
Deor's Lament
Lament for the Makaris
Tegner's Drapa
Alexander Pushkin's tender, touching poem "I
Love You" has been translated into English by Michael R. Burch.
Whoso List to Hunt
Ancient Greek Epigrams and Epitaphs
Meleager
Sappho
Basho
Oriental Masters/Haiku
Miklós Radnóti
Rainer Maria Rilke
Marina Tsvetaeva
Renée Vivien
Ono no Komachi
Allama Iqbal
Bertolt Brecht
Ber Horvitz
Paul Celan
Primo Levi
Ahmad Faraz
Sandor Marai
Wladyslaw Szlengel
Saul Tchernichovsky
Robert Burns: Original Poems and Translations
The Seventh Romantic: Robert Burns
Free Love Poems by Michael R. Burch
For an expanded bio, circum vitae and career timeline of the translator, please click
here:
Michael R.
Burch Expanded Bio.
Michael R. Burch Related Pages:
Early Poems,
Rejection Slips,
Epigrams and Quotes,
Free Love Poems by Michael R. Burch
The HyperTexts