Bad and good in April

Thanks for Philip Martin’s reflections on T.S. Eliot’s line, “April is the cruelest month.” I recall an anecdote about the man who wrote the lyrics to “April in Paris,” praising the April weather in that city. A friend objected that the weather was usually dismal in Paris during April and one had to wait until May to enjoy pleasant weather there. The lyricist replied that he knew that, but “April in Paris“was a better fit for the lyric’s meter.

Martin thoroughly documents his observation that “Bad things seem to happen around this time of year, with April 20 seemingly the most dangerous date.” But good things also occur during the latter half of April.

Longfellow reminds us “Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere./On the eighteenth of April in Seventy-five.” The following day, April 19, 1775, was the date of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, at which, as Emerson wrote about the bridge at Concord, “Here once the embattled farmers stood/And fired the shot heard round the world.” The people of Massachusetts have a state holiday, Patriots’ Day, commemorating those victories. The siege of Boston, begun on April 19, 1775, was well underway on April 20, 1775, with thousands of militiamen quickly joining it.

This year, Easter Sunday came in April, as it does in most years. Easter Sunday came on April 20 in the years 2003 and 2014, and it will do so again in 2025.

Yes, I am aware that the Boston Marathon bombings took place on Patriots’ Day in 2013; and this year there were terrorist bombings in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. That is the kind of world we are living in. RICHARD FROTHINGHAM

Little Rock