I came across something I found interesting that your students might also. There's a very old book from the 1600's called El Libro de Buen Amor by Juan Ruiz and it contains a lot of stuff, sorta like Canterbury Tales. One poem, "Enxienplo del Ortolano é de la Culebra" has been turned into more than one contemporary song that will surprise you. First, a translation of the poem (by me, with some help from some educated Mexicans, the spanish is 1600's remember) I didn't try to make it rhyme but the original did, really well.

There was a gardener, quite simple and without malice In the month of January with fierce weather Walking in his garden, he saw under a pear tree A little snake, half dead she was.

With the snow, and with the wind, and with the cold ice The snake was unconscious from cold The pious man, being dazed by life, Was much pained over her, he wanted to give her life.

He took her in his cloak and carried her to his house He put her in the fireplace, close to good coals; The snake revived - before he burned her up! And crawled into a crevice of that rustic kitchen.

This good man fed her every day Of the bread and of the milk and of whatever he ate She grew with great vigor, with the food that she got, So that it would have appeared to anyone this was a huge serpent.

The summer has come and the appointed rest When there's no fear of wind or of ice She came out of that crevice, vicious and furious. And commenced to bite the people there in the inn with venom.

Said the gardener, "Get out of this place! Don't do harm here!" She became enraged, She hugged him so fiercely, she would choke him Squeezing him really cruel, till he died.

The bad man rejoices in giving poison for honey, And for fruit, giving pain to friend and neighbor; For piety, deceit; tearing up the good that comes to them! That's just how it came to me from you...

This last line because the poem is part of a larger story, two women are arguing and this was a "discourse" by one of them.

The upshot is that this has been turned into popular songs such as

The Snake - Johnny Rivers

The Snake - Al Wilson (same exact song, I forget which one was released first, at that time I was in HS and didn't even know we were being fed two different records)

The Snake - Mediaeval Baebes: this one attempts to reproduce the Spanish altho I don't think they are pronouncing it right. But when a dozen pretty girls are on stage singing, who cares if they are pronouncing it right?