L2L Pieces of April

Pieces of April

Various Poets

“To what purpose, April, do you return again?” so wrote Edna St. Vincent Millay in the poem “Spring.” Both have been themes in poetry over the centuries and years, and while the month’s name comes from the Latin word aperit — which means “to open” — April itself evokes conflicting emotions. “Beauty is not enough,” Millay admonishes this month linked to the Greek goddess Aphrodite. Is April “the cruelest month,” as T. S. Eliot concluded, or does its freshness, per April baby William Wordsworth, usher in a “host […] of golden daffodils”? This week, Leigh (an April baby herself), P. T., and Dr. C. examine the poetry of our fourth month and debate whether “April / Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.”

(Photo © FreeImages/Makio Kusahara)