April’s Revelry and Winds: Literary Voices on Spring’s Playful Month
Today's Garden Words were featured on The Daily Gardener podcast:
Words inspired by the garden are the sweetest,
most beautiful words of all.
April 1, 2020
April has long been a month of contrasts—full of wit, whimsy, and the stirring promise of renewal.
Mark Twain’s sharp humor reminds us of the playful spirit April brings:
The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.
Indeed, April’s mischievous reputation lives on, as captured in the 1790 Poor Robin's Almanac:
The first of April, some do say,
Is set apart for All Fools' Day.
But why the people call it so,
Nor I, nor they themselves do know.
But on this day are people sent
On purpose for pure merriment.
Ralph Waldo Emerson sees April’s winds as more than weather; they are magical, stirring our senses and enlivening garden walks with passion and promise:
The April winds are magical,
And thrill our tuneful frames;
The garden walks are passional
To bachelors and dames.
Shakespeare, ever attuned to nature’s moods and human folly, offers a keen insight in As You Like It:
Men are April when they woo,
December when they wed;
Maids are May when they are maids,
but the sky changes when they are wives.
And in Romeo and Juliet, he paints a vivid picture of April stepping lively on winter’s heels:
"[W]ell-apparell'd April on the heel
Of limping winter treads…"
April reminds us all to embrace change—whether it brings laughter, love, or the fresh bloom of gardens awakening.