April soft and cold: Clean wantonness

Oh, looky here—it’s National Poetry Month. Again.

It hardly seems like a year has gone past since the last one, but here we are. So let’s get down to business, shall we?

I’m starting this month out with a couple of poems about…well, this month. Because April inspires all sorts of poetry. I suppose that’s on account of it’s the first full month of Spring, and folks and poets have had a little time to thaw out their creative sap. They’re watching trees come into leaf and flowers into bud. Cloaks, jackets and sweaters are coming off and children are outside playing in puddles.

In a few months, things will slow down in the summer heat and everyone will be content to lie on the grass watching clouds form and dissipate in the sky. Now, they’re shaking themselves like puppies getting ready for mischief.

So first off, Robert Herrick, a 17^th Century lyric poet, whose one collection of poetry, Hesperides, has only begun to be appreciated fairly recently. Is there a better introduction to the month or to poetry than this?

“The Argument of his Book”
 

I sing of brooks, of blossoms, birds, and bowers,

Of April, May, of June, and July flowers.

I sing of May-poles, hock-carts, wassails, wakes,

Of bridegrooms, brides, and of their bridal cakes

I write of youth, of love, and have access

By these to sing of cleanly wantonness.

I sing of dews, of rains, and piece by piece

Of balm, of oil, of spice, and ambergris.

I sing of Time’s trans-shifting; and I write

How roses first came red, and lilies white.

I write of groves, of twilights, and I sing

The court of Mab, and of the fairy king.

I write of Hell; I sing (and ever shall)

Of Heaven, and hope to have it after all.

In the interests of balancing the lyricism of Herrick, here’s a slightly different approach from the 20^th-Century Ogden Nash, known for his light verse. But you see the similarities, don’t you? 

“Always Marry an April Girl”

Praise the spells and bless the charms,

I found April in my arms.

April golden, April cloudy,

Gracious, cruel, tender, rowdy;

April soft in flowered languor,

April cold with sudden anger,

Ever changing, ever true—

I love April, I love you.