Posted by Dave Thewlis on March 31, 2009 at 19:09:06 user dthewlis.
In Reply to: The Nature Books discussion posted by Claire on February 26, 2009 at 17:57:53:
Chris Shoarns from North Dorset drew my attention to Page 52 of "The Child's Book of the Seasons":
Cuckoo, cuckoo
How do you?
In April I open my bill;
In May
I sing by night and day;
In June
I change my tune;
In July,
Away I fly;
In August
Away I must
and compares it to Paul Simon's 'April, Come She Will' noting the similarity. It seems unlikely that Paul Simon would have come across a copy of Ransome's work, and much more likely that the common source is a nursery rhyme: http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=hes&p=1911. The Lang book was published in 1897 so it could have been the direct source for AR.