Proud-pied April: A spirit of youth in every thing

Oh, yay—it’s April, so it’s National Poetry Month. I love this month!

Let’s step forward into these 30 days with one of the big guns. William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 98 is as good as any to usher in thoughts of spring, love and all that jazz.

From you have I been absent in the spring,

When proud-pied April dress'd in all his trim

Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing,

That heavy Saturn laugh'd and leap'd with him.

Yet nor the lays of birds nor the sweet smell

Of different flowers in odour and in hue

Could make me any summer's story tell,

Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew;

Nor did I wonder at the lily's white,

Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;

They were but sweet, but figures of delight,

Drawn after you, you pattern of all those.

   Yet seem'd it winter still, and, you away,

   As with your shadow I with these did play.

In rereading this I was strongly reminded of a more contemporary iteration of these sentiments—how separation from your lover changes your perception of the world around you. So I’ll give you Bill Withers and “Ain’t no Sunshine”.

Welcome to April.