January brings the snow,
Makes our feet and fingers glow.
February brings the rain*,
Thaws the frozen lake again.
March brings breezes large and shrill,
Stirs the dancing daffodil.
April brings the primrose sweet,
Scatters daisies at our feet.
May brings flocks of pretty lambs,
Skipping by their fleecy damns.
June brings tulips, lilies, roses,
Fills the children's hands with posies.
Hot July brings cooling showers,
Apricots and gillyflowers**.
August brings the sheaves of corn***,
Then the harvest home is borne.
Warm September brings the fruit,
Sportsmen then begin to shoot.
Fresh October brings the pheasants,
Then to gather nuts is pleasant.
Dull November brings the blast,
Then the leaves are whirling fast.
Chill December brings the sleet*,
Blazing fire and Christmas treat.
---Sara Coleridge (1802-1852)
English writer Sara Coleridge is most known as the only daughter of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and an editor of his work, particularly after her father and her husband died. However, she was an author and translator in her own right.
In the 21st century, a discovery of over 100 of her unpublished poems was made. A lecturer at University College, London, Dr. Swaab, discovered them in the Coleridge manuscripts and published them in 2007.
*Many places in the northern hemisphere will still snow in December & February. The British Isles, being smallish and surrounded by water, do not always have the conditions for snow.
**Gillyflowers: most often, another term for "carnations", though the term may be applied to other flowers,
***Corn: old-school, Old World, meant "wheat" (whereas New World "corn" was called some variant of "maize.")
****Though this poem is not overtly religious, Sara was. She opposed the Oxford Movement (Tractarian Movement), in the 1840s. The movement led to an Anglican Church that was more "high church" or more similar to Roman Catholicism, as opposed to other protestant ideas present in England. [Gerard Manly Hopkins, whose work is featured elsewhere in this blog, did approve of the Tractarian Movement. Eventually he went so far as to formally become Roman Catholic.]
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