April come she will
When streams are ripe and swelled with rain;
May, she will stay,
Resting in my arms again.
June, she'll change her tune,
In restless walks she'll prowl the night;
July, she will fly
And give no warning to her flight.
August, die she must,
The autumn winds blow chilly and cold;
September I'll remember
A love once new has now grown old.
-from Sounds of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel
When winter drags on and cabin fever hits strong
this is the song always comes to mind. Like many from the '60's folk rock era, the lyrics are reputed to contain cryptic references to other things; I recall conversations years after the song was first released, and they continue mirrored on the web into this new century, 40 years later!
B3
Everybody has their own take on what the song actually means. Most obviously it, like Scarborough Fair, is an adaptation of an old English nursery rhyme:
B3
The cuckoo comes in April, and stays the month of May
Midsummer June she'll change her tune, and then she'll fly away
B3
The arrival of the cuckoo, around mid-April in England, is a signal that spring has come at last. Traditional English "Cuckoo Days" and "Cuckoo Fairs" carry on into modern times during the months of April and May.
B3
Naturally, the cuckoo is also connected with springtide's earlier festivity known affectionately as April Fools Day. In the Julian calendar, March 25-April 1 was a liminal time when the old year passed into the new. With the adaptation of the Gregorian calendar, New Years Day was shifted to January 1. People who forgot and continued to celebrate the New Years Day on April 1st were called "April Fools", and were therefore subject to various pranks, jokes and fools' errands. In Britain, the person so fooled was also called the April cuckoo.
B3
Forgive me, reader, if you've heard it before, but I must tell this little story:
I have a lovely cuckoo clock that I purchased many years ago in the Black Forest. When we were getting our kitchen flooring replaced, the person we hired was positioned directly under and facing the clock when it struck noon and the little bird called out twelve cuckoos. Feeling thus "accused," the good fellow retorted "Keep your opinions to yourself!" (I still think that's funny, but then, I'm easily amused)
B3
"April Come She Will" - a song of life and love and the ephemerality of the seasons. Back in the day, though, we all "knew" what it was actually about, as reflected in this recent comment:
"i always thought this song was about growing mary jane.
-april come she will. when it begins to grow.
-may she will stay. if it makes it to may then its gonna live to become a full adult.
-june, she'll change her tune. the flower will begin to bud.
-july she will fly. u smoke it then it goes into the sky.
-august die she must. the plant will die in august
-september i'll remember. not sure if this is when u plant again or something else?"
B3
Which sort of brings us back to Alice. And Simon & Garfunkel. They met in elementary school, and both appeared in a school play of Alice in Wonderland - Simon as the White Rabbit, Garfunkel as the Cheshire Cat. Can you picture that? Weird how these Feria researches tend to link seemingly disparate things together. Curiouser and curiouser.
April foolery continues tomorrow...
From School of the Seasons: It is lucky to say, “Hares, Hares,” aloud as you go to bed on the last day of the month (any month), and to say “Rabbits, Rabbits,” as soon as you awaken the following morning. This is true for any month, but it seems especially appropriate during this month of the mad hare. And why are hares mad in March? Because this is when hares breed, and apparently leaping, cavorting, dancing and frolicking are part of their mating ritual.
