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April come she will -- 04/01/11



April...

Warmth, spring, sunshine, etc... Or perhaps this:

It was raining yesterday afternoon, the last day of March... and then, late in the afternoon, big white flakes of snow began to fall along with the rain. I was going around singing Christmas songs. This photo shows what our back yard looked like this morning. Of course, as the day went on, so did the rain, and as I am writing this, the snow has been washed away by the rain.

No matter that T.S. Eliot proclaimed April to be the cruelest month, I have always liked April. It is, after all, the month that really does take us from the last vestiges of winter to the warmth of spring.

Besides which, it is my birthday month. (Okay, I will admit that the age that rings up each time I hit April 29th does seem to be getting rather disconcerting, but I still like April.)
Though April showers
May come your way,
They bring the flowers
That bloom in May;
And if it's raining,
Have no regrets;
Because, it isn't raining rain, you know,
It's raining violets.
 Al Jolson April Shower Lyrics

But I think my favorite April lyrics are from Chaucer...

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,
And smale fowles maken melodye,
That slepen al the night with open ye,
( So priketh hem nature in hir corages):
Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmers for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke.
Geoffry Chaucer from The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales

A number of years ago I searched for audio readings of the Canterbury Tales online and, if I recall, found a short audio clip and a CD for sale and a broken link -- now there are dozens of readings available on YouTube alone. Here is a link to a reading of the lines I quoted above. (And yes, I do sometimes recite those lines, although my Middle English is not quite up to professional standards -- also if I am not looking at the text I tend to forget an occasional line or maybe three or four.

Oh... and the title of today's entry is, of course, from Simon & Garfunkle...
April come she will
When streams are ripe and swelled with rain
May she will stay,
Resting in my arms again.
 Paul Simon April Come She Will




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