Readings

by Vic Jameson

Here are two things you probably should remember (how long you should remember them is another question):

1. Never give up.
2. Never give up.

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T.S. Eliot seems to have written “The Burial of the Dead” while in a dour mood. Just listen to this:

April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.

This is not intended as a criticism of Eliot or his poem. But there’s a lot more to April than a dirge.

April is famous for any number of things. Start with the first day of that month. April Fools Day has probably entertained more practical jokers than any other day you can think of. I, long ago, knew a man who was almost afraid to go home on April 1 because of the fiendish trick or tricks his wife would have conjured to play on him.

Moving right along, Daylight Savings Time in the U.S. begins in April. Then come the NCAA women’s basketball championship, the men’s basketball championship, and the Masters Golf Tournament. The Pulitzer prizes are announced, the National Football League draft is held, it’s the Patriot’s Day marathon, and many of you reading this would do well to remember that April 26 is Professional Secretaries Day. I nearly forgot to mention that Take Our Daughters to Work Day, Earth Day and Arbor Day are April residents. Assorted grandfathers, great-uncles, and cousins in-law in your family and mine would clamor for recognition for Confederate Memorial Day.

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Think now for a few minutes about the beauties of April. You can almost feel the earth awakening: The skies are bluer; and the plants are greene than at any time since October gave way to dour November. Blossoms are everywhere. Kids who have been frustrated by winter and snow begin to burst out of their winter cocoons. And if you think the young ones are glad, just imagine how their housebound parents must enjoy it.

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Maybe poetry is the best use of words to describe April. Poetry and patriotism mix naturally:

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town tonight,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light, —

One, if by land, and two, if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm.”
— from “Tales of a Wayside Inn” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

And, sung at the completion of the Battle Monument on April 19, 1836, the resounding words of Ralph Waldo Emerson in “Concord Hymn”:

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set today a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.

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One more thought: Most of you know already that Allen Hines, husband of Jane and friend of many Voice readers, has died. He was a genuine, gentle man. He will be missed.