Tuesday, April 01, 2008

So which is it?

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.


T.S. Eliot, "The Wasteland"

Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
5 Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
10 That slepen al the nyght with open eye-
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages.*


Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales

Two poets, separated by five centuries of both human experience and language development, with totally different takes on April. Which one's right? Or are they both?

*Click for Ronald Decker's translation


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