Walk Through The Bottomland

"April is the cruellest month", says TS Eliot.

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

I've always liked the beginning of this poem - it rolls of the tongue nicely - but I have never thought of April as cruel, and to be honest, I don't get most of the poem - he always loses me in the bit about the Starnbergersee and the Hofgarten.

I like April. April showers bring May flowers. I've even always liked the proverbial capriciousness of April weather. Today is a good example - started off slightly overcast, then the sun came out for a while, and in the late afternoon it poured rain. Now the day seems to be exhausted - it's probably thrown off its pace from the daylight saving change, just like we are.

Comments

[anne]

i like the start of the poem, too... i intepret it as meaning that youth (spring) is "cruel" to age (winter), because it reminds us again of what we were. if things in nature could just grow, age, and die, as people do, we could reconcile, but because things in nature are "re-born", they make us long for our lost youth, over and over, every april.
not to mention that spring stirs people differently. if you've seen young people kissing on streetcorners in the spring, and thought, "i'm too old for that"-- do you know what i mean?
of course, i could be wrong.

[Elkit]

*I* think you could be right. I never thought of it as a metaphor. Silly me. Thanks for pointing that out. :-)