After reading through some of the lyrics I came across common themes. The first few lyrics were mostly about nature, song, women, and religion. The nature lyrics often drew metaphors to women through relation to bird songs and floral beauty. This is important in understanding how nature is always related to women, hence, mother nature, though I am not sure where this came about exactly. Others drew the connection between women and religion, more specifically the Virgin Mary. I believe there was some Catholic influence within some of the lyrics because Catholics pray to God through the Virgin Mary and the lyric “Now skrinketh rose and lily-flour” illustrates this. A lot of the early lyrics also reference spring, and in a religious context this represents rebirth and new beginnings, symbolic of resurrection.

Another thing I noticed, as I got closer to the fifteenth century the content was easier to read and comprehend. This reflects how the language was altered over time little by little. I find it interesting because while I was reading I didn’t know if had gotten better at reading OE or if the language was just more familiar/modern, then I realized the change in century as I continued reading and recognized the language shift.