April is a month of transitions. It brings rain and blossom, endings and beginnings, memory and growth. As T.S. Eliot famously wrote, “April is the cruellest month.” Yet poets through the ages have seen April not only as a symbol of sorrow but as a harbinger of spring, of renewal, and of life’s paradoxes. From classic English verse to American modernism and contemporary reflections, the month of April has been a rich subject in poetry.
This article explores 10 poems about April. Each section discusses the poet, analyzes key themes, and presents excerpts or complete versions of the poem. These works come from a wide range of sources—some canonical, others more obscure—but each offers a window into the emotional and seasonal complexity of April.
10 Evocative Poems That Capture the Spirit of April
1. “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot (1922)
Source: The Waste Land, first published in The Criterion (1922)
Perhaps the most famous poetic line about April comes from the first stanza of Eliot’s The Waste Land:
“April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.”
In this modernist masterpiece, Eliot challenges the traditional association of April with hope and rebirth. Instead, he portrays April as a time of painful awakening. Spring forces new growth, but that growth is tied to memory and loss.
Eliot’s April is not a gentle entrance into warmth. It is a cruel season that disrupts numbness. This tension between rebirth and pain sets the tone for the rest of the poem.
2. “To April” by William Blake (1794)
Source: Poetical Sketches (1783)
Blake’s short lyric “To April” takes a more traditional pastoral tone, seeing April as a gentle month. Here’s the full text:
“Welcome, April, fair and mild,
Month of sunshine, month of rain;
Child of winter, manhood’s gain,
Nature’s ever-smiling child.”
Blake celebrates the balance of joy and growth. His April is mild but powerful—a metaphor for transition from the dormancy of winter into the maturity of summer.
Blake’s spirituality infuses the poem, and April becomes a symbol of the divine in the natural cycle. It is both innocent and productive, aligning with Romantic ideals of purity and organic truth.
3. “Spring” by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1921)
Source: Second April (1921)
Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote Spring not as a praise of April, but as a skeptical challenge to the very idea of rebirth. The poem opens:
“To what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.”
Millay critiques the tendency to see April and spring as inherently beautiful. She points out that nature’s return does not erase human suffering or death. The poem continues:
“Lilacs have bloomed for death’s sake.
The smell of the earth is good.
Exaltation in the way of life is not always wise.”
Here, April is a false promise. Millay’s speaker demands more than beauty—she seeks meaning. This tension reflects post-WWI disillusionment and the growing cynicism of the early 20th century.
4. “April Rain Song” by Langston Hughes (1921)
Source: The Weary Blues (1926)
Langston Hughes takes a tender approach in “April Rain Song.” The poem reads like a lullaby:
“Let the rain kiss you.
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.
Let the rain sing you a lullaby.”
In contrast to Eliot and Millay, Hughes finds comfort and beauty in April’s rain. It is nurturing and soft, like a mother’s voice or a peaceful dream. Hughes, a central voice in the Harlem Renaissance, often emphasized emotional simplicity and accessibility.
The poem reflects a deep appreciation of nature’s subtle gifts, and April becomes a symbol of emotional restoration.
5. “April” by Sara Teasdale (1917)
Source: Love Songs (1917), Pulitzer Prize winner
Sara Teasdale’s lyric “April” combines sensual imagery with spiritual longing:
“The roofs are shining from the rain,
The sparrows twitter as they fly,
And with a windy April grace
The little clouds go by.”
The poem is filled with gentle movement: rain, wind, birds. April becomes a kinetic force of transformation. Yet there is also a sadness beneath the lightness:
“I know that spring will come again,
Perhaps to bring me joy or pain.”
Teasdale’s poem accepts April as uncertain. It may bring beauty, but it may also awaken sorrow. That duality defines the season—and much of Teasdale’s melancholic yet lyrical body of work.
6. “April Inventory” by W.D. Snodgrass (1963)
Source: Heart’s Needle (1959), Pulitzer Prize winner
W.D. Snodgrass takes a personal approach in “April Inventory,” using the month as a moment of introspection. The poem is lengthy, but the opening lines set the tone:
“The green catalpa tree has turned
All white; the cherry blooms once more.”
Snodgrass uses spring’s return as a marker of time. He evaluates his life—successes, failures, and regrets. The title “inventory” reflects the poem’s accounting tone. He writes:
“I have not held my breath so long
Nor held a girl in arms so strong.”
April, then, becomes a kind of mirror. It is not cruel in Eliot’s sense, nor comforting like Hughes’s rain. It is a reminder of the passage of time and the human tendency to assess, measure, and reflect.
7. “An April Day” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1841)
Source: Ballads and Other Poems (1841)
This early American poem is a hymn to April’s beauty. Longfellow’s speaker walks through nature, taking joy in everything April offers:
“When the warm sun, that brings
Seed-time and harvest, has returned again,
‘T is sweet to visit the still wood, where springs
The first flower of the plain.”
Longfellow’s language is gentle and reverent. He paints a pastoral image of nature blooming with purpose and rhythm. April is a kind of promise—a seasonal assurance that life returns in beauty and calm.
The poem reflects 19th-century American transcendental ideals, drawing attention to the spiritual harmony found in nature.
8. “Lines Written in Early Spring” by William Wordsworth (1798)
Source: Lyrical Ballads (1798)
Although not titled “April,” this poem clearly takes place in early spring. Wordsworth, a founder of English Romanticism, muses on nature and humanity:
“Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;
And ’tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.”
Wordsworth marvels at the peace and order in nature. Yet, as with many Romantic poems, this harmony contrasts sharply with human conflict:
“If this belief from heaven be sent,
If such be Nature’s holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?”
April’s setting allows Wordsworth to reflect on the purity of the natural world and the cruelty of human society. Nature is idealized, but humankind falls short.
9. “April Poem” by Mary Oliver (2006)
Source: New and Selected Poems, Volume Two (2006)
Mary Oliver, known for her accessible and celebratory poetry about nature, wrote “April Poem” as a quiet meditation. It opens:
“The optimists among us
are sometimes right.”
Oliver acknowledges the traditional association of April with hope—but she does so cautiously. The poem celebrates small things: blossoms, sunlight, birdsong.
“And yes, it is spring,
and it is also April,
and it is also windy and damp
and too early for the roses.”
There’s humility in Oliver’s observation. April is not perfect, but it contains the seeds of beauty. Like much of her work, the poem encourages attentiveness and gratitude.
10. “April Midnight” by Arthur Symons (1895)
Source: Silhouettes (1892)
Symons, a British poet associated with the Symbolist movement, wrote “April Midnight” as a romantic, moody vision of a nighttime April walk:
“Side by side through the streets at midnight,
Roaming together,
Through the tumultuous night of London,
In the miraculous April weather.”
The poem is deeply sensual. The lovers walk through a transformed city, where April lends mystery and electricity to the night. The repeated use of “together” creates intimacy and rhythm:
“A moment we pause on the bridge,
Where the moon is caught in the river,
And she shines up through the stream
To our feet with a fearful quiver.”
Symons’s April is urban, romantic, and dreamlike. It shows that April can evoke not only pastoral beauty but also passionate connection.
Conclusion
April is a month of contradiction—of cruelty and kindness, hope and regret, rain and blossom. The poems in this collection reflect that duality. T.S. Eliot and Edna St. Vincent Millay offer us skepticism. Langston Hughes and Sara Teasdale find comfort in April’s weather. Wordsworth and Longfellow see divine order in its flowers. Mary Oliver and W.D. Snodgrass use April as a moment of reflection, and Arthur Symons uses it to frame intimacy and mystery.
Through these ten poems, we discover that April is more than just a month—it is a metaphor. It represents the human experience of change, of waiting, of remembering and hoping.
Whether cruel or kind, April continues to inspire poets to explore the eternal dance between the past and the future, between death and life.
