Song of the Annunciation, a paraphrase of Luke 1:28–38, survives in damaged form as a fragment of twelve opening lines. It must be deliberate that an Annunciation hymn follows Love Rune in Jesus 29 because Love Rune adopts the premise of an annunciatory message delivered to a “maid of Christ,” borne by a go-between (like Gabriel) who serves God’s amatory business. Thus, after the maiden of Love Rune is bid to sing the runic message (line 102), the holiest of angelic pronouncements appears under the scribe’s rubric “Item cantus” (A song). Perhaps in its original presentation Song was appended to Love Rune, and, if so, then Thomas of Hales could be its author. The surviving lines suggest a poem of great delicacy. Elsewhere, Thomas’s treatment of the theme is extant in his Latin Vita sancte Marie (Horrall, ed., The Lyf of Oure Lady, pp. 47–51).

Song of the Annunciation has been erroneously printed by previous editors in combination with The Annunication (art. 10), another fragment, but the makeup of Jesus 29 precludes the possibility that the items belong to the same poem. In addition, their meters are decidedly different. Irregular rhymes in the surviving fragment make the precise meter of Song difficult to pin down, but it seems to be similar to that of the Harley 2253 political poem The Flemish Insurrection (CHMS, 2:214–21), which commemorates an event of 1307.

[Fol. 188v. NIMEV 877 (combined with art. 10). DIMEV 1467 (combined with art. 10). Quire: 4. Meter: 12 surviving lines, apparently in 8-line stanzas, rhyming irregularly aaa5–7b3ccc5–7b3. Layout: Long lines with medial and end punctuation, and short lines with end punctuation, sometimes written continuously. The incipit is written to the right of the first line. Editions (combined with art. 10): Morris, p. 100; Saupe, pp. 44, 172–73. Other MSS: None.]