May

Poetry, Quotations, Lore
Sayings, Links, References
Ideas, Garden Chores

Compiled by Michael P. Garofalo

Quotes  ...  Links  ... References  ...  Chores

Quotes

The month of May was come, when every lusty heart beginneth
to blossom, and to bring forth fruit; for like as herbs and trees 
bring forth fruit and flourish in May, in likewise every lusty heart
that is in any manner a lover, springeth and flourisheth in lusty
deeds.  For it giveth unto all lovers courage, 
that lusty month of May.  
-   Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, 1485

The wind is tossing the lilacs,
The new leaves laugh in the sun,
And the petals fall on the orchard wall,
But for me the spring is done.

Beneath the apple blossoms
I go a wintry way,
For love that smiled in April
Is false to me in May.
-   Sara Teasdale, May

A swarm of bees in May
Is worth a load of hay;
A swarm of bees in June
Is worth a silver spoon;
A swarm of bees in July
Is not worth a fly.
-   Rhyme from England

May and June.  Soft syllables, gentle names for the two best months
in the garden year:  cool, misty mornings gently burned away with a
warming spring sun, followed by breezy afternoons and chilly nights.
The discussion of philosophy is over; it's time for work to begin.
-   Peter Loewer

The world's favorite season is the spring. 
All things seem possible in May.
-   Edwin Way Teale

What potent blood hath modest May.
-  Ralph W. Emerson

Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses,
A box where sweets compacted lie.
-   George Herbert, Virtue

By the time one is eighty, it is said, there is no longer a tug of war 
in the garden with the May flowers hauling like mad against the 
claims of the other months.  All is at last in balance and all is 
serene.  The gardener is usually dead, of course.
-   Henry Mitchell, The Essential Earthman, 1981

If it's drama that you sigh for,
plant a garden and you'll get it
You will know the thrill of battle
fighting foes that will beset it
If you long for entertainment and
for pageantry most glowing,
Plant a garden and this summer spend
your time with green things growing.
-   Edward A. Guest, Plant a Garden

In somer when the shawes be sheyne,
And leves be large and long,
Hit is full merry in feyre foreste
To here the foulys song.

To see the dere draw to the dale
And leve the hilles hee,
And shadow him in the leves grene
Under the green-wode tree.

Hit befell on Whitsontide
Early in a May mornyng,
The Sonne up faire can shyne,
And the briddis mery can syng.
-  Anonymous, May in the Green Wode, 15h Century

The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day.
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
a cloud come over the sunlit arch,
And wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March.
-  Robert Frost

Seasons and Time

O Day after day we can't help growing older.
Year after year spring can't help seeming younger.
Come let's enjoy our winecup today,
Nor pity the flowers fallen.
-   Wang Wei, On Parting with Spring

'But I must gather knots of flowers,
And buds and garlands gay,
For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother,
I'm to be Queen o' the May.'
-   Alfred Lord Tennyson

May is a pious fraud of the almanac.
-  James R. Lowell,  1819 - 1891

The young May moon is beaming, love.
The glow-worm's lamp is gleaming, love.
How sweet to rove,
Through Morna's grove,
When the drowsy world is dreaming, love!
Then awake! -- the heavens look bright, my dear,
'Tis never too late for delight, my dear,
And the best of all ways
To lengthen our days
Is to steal a few hours from the night, my dear!
-   Thomas Moore, The Young May Moon

What is now the foliage moving?

Air is still, and hush'd the breeze,
Sultriness, this fullness loving,

Through the thicket, from the trees.
Now the eye at once gleams brightly,

See! the infant band with mirth
Moves and dances nimbly, lightly,
As the morning gave it birth,

Flutt'ring two and two o'er earth.
-   Goethe, May, 1815

What is so sweet and dear
   As a prosperous morn in May,
   The confident prime of the day,
And the dauntless youth of the year,
When nothing that asks for bliss,
   Asking aright, is denied,
And half of the world a bridegroom is,
   And half of the world a bride?
-   William Watson, Ode in May, 1880

'Sap which mounts, and flowers which thrust,
Your childhood is a bower:
Let my fingers wander in the moss
Where glows the rosebud

'Let me among the clean grasses
Drink the drops of dew
Which sprinkle the tender flower, --
- Paul Verlaine, Spring

Spring - An experience in immortality.
-   Henry D. Thoreau

The year is ended, and it only adds to my age;
Spring has come, but I must take leave of my home.
Alas, that the trees in this easter garden,
Without me, will still bear flowers.
-   Su Ting, circa 700AD

A little Madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King.
-   Emily Dickinson, #1333

Spring - Quotes for Gardeners

I think that no matter how old or infirm I may become,
I will always plant a large garden in the spring.  Who can
resist the feelings of hope and joy that one gets from
participating in nature's rebirth?
-   Edward Giobbi

It is the thirtieth of May,
the thirtieth of November,
a beginning or an end,
we are moving into the solstice
and there is so much here
I still do not understand.
-   Adrienne Rich, Toward the Solstice

The air is like a butterfly
With frail blue wings.
The happy earth looks at the sky
And sings.
-   Joyce Kilmer, Spring

The country ever has a lagging Spring,
Waiting for May to call its violets forth,
And June its roses--showers and sunshine bring,
Slowly, the deepening verdure o'er the earth;
To put their foliage out, the woods are slack,
And one by one the singing-birds come back.

Within the city's bounds the time of flowers
Comes earlier. Let a mild and sunny day,
Such as full often, for a few bright hours,
Breathes through the sky of March the airs of May,
Shine on our roofs and chase the wintry gloom--
And lo! our borders glow with sudden bloom.
-   William Cullen Bryant, Spring in Town, 1850

Now the bright morning-star, Day’s harbinger,
Comes dancing from the East, and leads with her
The flowery May, who from her green lap throws
The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose.
Hail, bounteous May, that dost inspire
Mirth, and youth, and warm desire!
Woods and groves are of thy dressing;
Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing.
Thus we salute thee with our early song,
And welcome thee, and wish thee long.
-   John Milton, Song on a May Morning, 1660

I sing of brooks, of blossoms, birds, and bowers:
Of April, May, or June, and July flowers.
I sing of Maypoles, Hock-carts, wassails, wakes,
Of bridegrooms, brides, and of the bridal cakes.
-   Robert Herrick, Hesperides, 1648

An optimist is the human personification of spring.
-- Susan J. Bissonette

The name for the month of 'May' has been believed to derive from 'Maia', 
who was revered as the Roman 'Goddess of Springtime, of Growth and 
Increase', and the mother of 'Mercury', the winged messenger of the Gods. 
Yet this is disputed as before these deities featured in mythology the name 
'Maius' or 'Magius', taken from the root 'Mag', meaning the 'Growing month' 
or 'Shooting month' was used.
-  May Mystical World Wide Web

The month of May was come, when every lusty heart beginneth to 
blossom, and to bring forth fruit; for like as herbs and trees bring 
forth fruit and flourish in May, in likewise every lusty heart that is 
in any manner a lover, springeth and flourisheth in lusty deeds. 
For it giveth unto all lovers courage, that lusty month of May.
-   Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur

May! Queen of blossoms,
   And fulfilling flowers,
With what pretty music
   Shall we charm the hours?
Wilt thou have pipe and reed,
Blown in the open mead?
Or to the lute give heed
   In the green bowers?
-  Lord Edward Thurlow, May

Winds of May, that dance on the sea,
Dancing a ring-around in glee
From furrow to furrow, while overhead
The foam flies up to be garlanded,
In silvery arches spanning the air,
Saw you my true love anywhere?
Welladay! Welladay!
For the winds of May!
Love is unhappy when love is away!
-  James Joyce, Winds of May

In your neat garden iris grows 
Bright yellow, mauve - in stately rows. 
This one you’ve picked’s a lovely thing,
I know it brightens up our spring.
But in the forest, springtime’s child, 
A purple iris growing wild, 
Can melt my heart as spring melts snow, 
It’s spoilt me for the sort you grow!
-   Jude, Wild Iris

Everything is blooming most recklessly; 
if it were voices instead of colors, there would 
be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night. 
-   Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke

Cuttings - May - Short Poems by Michael P. Garofalo

Spring is God's way of saying,
"One more time!"
-   Robert Orben

Besides this May
We know
There is Another—
How fair
Our Speculations of the Foreigner!

Some know Him whom We knew—
Sweet Wonder—
A Nature be
Where Saints, and our plain going Neighbor
Keep May!
-   Emily Dickinson, Besides This May, #977, 1875

Sweet April showers
Do spring May flowers.
-   Thomas Tusser, A Hundred Good Points of Husbandry, 1557

Now is the month of Maying,
When merry lads are playing.
Fa la la...
Each with his bonny lass,
upon the greeny grass.
Fa la la...
The Spring clad all in gladness,
Doth laugh at winter's sadness.
Fa la la...
-   Thomas Morley, Now is the Month of Maying

The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it "easing the Spring."
-   Henry Reed, Lessons of the War

Winter is many months of the year
But now at last Maytime is here;
And birds sing from a leafy screen
In the trees and hedgerow freshly green;
And the wood-anemone is out in the shade,
With its blushing petals which too soon fade;
Once more the bracken is unfurling there,
And bluebells gently perfume the damp air.
-   Veronica Ann Twells, Maytime

The fair maid who, the first of May
Goes to the fields at break of day
And washes in dew from the hawthorn tree
Will ever after handsome be.
-  Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme

Since thy return, through days and weeks
Of hope that grew by stealth,
How many wan and faded cheeks
Have kindled into health!
The Old, by thee revived, have said,
'Another year is ours;'
And wayworn Wanderers, poorly fed,
Have smiled upon thy flowers.
-   William Wordsworth, To May, 1830

`Tis May, the elfish maiden, the daughter of the Spring,
Upon whose birthday morning the birds delight to sing.
They would not sing one note for you, if you should so command,
Although you are a princess, a princess of the land.
-   Robert Fuller Murray, A May-Day Madrigal

Ask of Her, the mighty Mother.
Her reply puts this other
Question: What is Spring?-
Growth in every thing -

Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,
Grass and green world all together,
Star-eyed strawberry breasted
Throstle above Her nested

Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin
Forms and warms the life within,
And bird and blossom swell
In sod or sheath or shell.
-   Gerard Manly Hopkins, The May Magnificant, 1888

O the green things growing, the green things growing,
The faint sweet smell of the green things growing!
I should like to live, whether I smile or grieve,
Just to watch the happy life of my green things growing.
-   Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

A delicate fabric of bird song 
Floats in the air, 
The smell of wet wild earth 
Is everywhere. 
Oh I must pass nothing by 
Without loving it much, 
The raindrop try with my lips, 
The grass with my touch; 
For how can I be sure 
I shall see again 
The world on the first of May 
Shining after the rain?
-   Sara Teasdale, May Day

I thought that spring must last forevermore
For I was young and loved, and it was May. 
-   Vera Brittain, May Morning

Every spring is the only spring - a perpetual astonishment.
-   Ellis Peters

Chime out, thou little song of Spring,
Float in the blue skies ravishing.
Thy song-of-life a joy doth bring
That's sweet, albeit fleeting.
Float on the Spring-winds e'en to my home:
And when thou to a rose shalt come
That hath begun to show her bloom,
Say, I send her greeting!

-   Sidney Lanier, Spring Greeting, 1860

Spring, the sweet spring, is the year's pleasant king,
Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,
Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing:
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

The palm and May make country houses gay,
Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,
And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay:
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!
-  Thomas Nashe, Spring the Sweet Spring, 1590

The May-pole is up,
Now give me the cup;
I'll drink to the garlands around it;
But first unto those
Whose hands did compose
The glory of flowers that crown'd it.
-   Robert Herrick, The Maypole, 1660

Worschippe ye that loveris bene this May,
For of your blisse the Kalendis are begonne,
And sing with us, Away, Winter, away!
   Cum, Somer, cum, the suete sesoun and sonne!
   Awake for schame! that have your hevynnis wonne,
   And amorously lift up your hedis all,
   Thank Lufe that list you to his merci call!
-   King James I, Spring Song of the Birds

Every year, back comes Spring, with nasty little birds yapping
their fool heads off and the ground all mucked up with plants.
-  Dorothy Parker

Also known as May Eve, May Day, and Walpurgis Night, happens at the beginning
of May.  It celebrates the height of Spring and the flowering of life. The Goddess 
manifests as the May Queen and Flora.  The God emerges as the May King and 
Jack in the Green.  The danced Maypole represents Their unity, with the pole 
itself being the God and the ribbons that encompass it, the Goddess.  Colors 
are the Rainbow spectrum. Beltane is a festival of flowers, fertility, 
sensuality, and delight.
-  Selena Fox, Beltane: Celebrating the Seasons

Cultivate your roses, grow your orchids in the dark 
Plant your posies row on row and stink up the whole park 
The flower that's my favourite kind is found throughout the land 
A wilting, yellow dandelion, clutched in a grubby hand.
-   Larry Tilander, Springtime of My Soul

How fair doth Nature
Appear again!
How bright the sunbeams!
How smiles the plain!

The flow'rs are bursting
From ev'ry bough,
And thousand voices
Each bush yields now.

And joy and gladness
Fill ev'ry breast!
Oh earth!--oh sunlight!
Oh rapture blest!

Oh love! oh loved one!
-  Goethe, May Song

It was the month of May, the month when the foliage of herbs and 
trees is most freshly green, when buds ripened and blossoms 
appear in their fragrance and loveliness. And the month when 
lovers, subject to the same force which reawakens the plants, 
feel their hearts open again, recall past trysts and past vows, 
and moments of tenderness, and yearn for a renewal of the 
magical awareness which is love.
-  Sir Thomas Malory, La Morte d'Arthur

Poetry is the silence and speech between a wet struggling 
root of a flower and a sunlit blossom of that flower. 
-    Carl Sandburg

What a time herbs and weeds, and such things could talk,

A man in his garden one day did walk,

Spying a nettle green (as th'emeraude*) spread       

In a bed of roses like the ruby red.

Between which two colours he thought, by his eye,

The green nettle did the red rose beautify.

"Howbeit," he ask'd the nettle, "what thing

Made him so pert? so nigh the rose to spring?"
-   John Heywood, A Rose and a Nettle

And what if thou, sweet May, hast known
Mishap by worm and blight;
If expectations newly blown
Have perished in thy sight;
If loves and joys, while up they sprung,
Were caught as in a snare;
Such is the lot of all the young,
However bright and fair.
-   William Wordsworth, To May, 1840

I cannot tell you how it was,
But this I know: it came to pass
Upon a bright and sunny day
When May was young; ah, pleasant May!
As yet the poppies were not born
Between the blades of tender corn;
The last egg had not hatched as yet,
Nor any bird foregone its mate.

I cannot tell you what it was,
But this I know: it did but pass.
It passed away with sunny May,
Like all sweet things it passed away,
And left me old, and cold, and gray.
-   Christina Georgina Rossetti, May, 1880

The folk celebrations of early May in Europe began as a celebration 
of life and fertility, the time for planting of crops and vegetable gardens, 
and for the regeneration of life that comes with increased sunlight.  In 
fact, Beltane is derived from the Celtic word for "brilliant fire."   ... 
Many of the so-called folk or pagan festivals and days of observance 
were tied to the solar and lunar cycles and the great cycles of life.  By 
the start of May, most trees are in full leaf, many Spring flowers are in 
bloom and the Earth is brimming with both plant and animal life taking
advantage of the high sun levels and ever warmer temperatures. The 
longer daylight hours allow folks to take advantage of the natural 
light for both work and play.
-  May Day - The Weather Doctor

Prithee, smite the poet in the eye when he would sing to you praises of the month 
of May.  It is a month presided over by the spirits of mischief and madness.  Pixies
and flibbertigibbets haunt the budding woods: Puck and his train of midgets are 
busy in town and country.

In May, nature holds up at us a chiding finger, bidding us remember that we are 
not gods, but overconceited members of her own great family.  She reminds us 
that we are brothers to the chowder-doomed clam and the donkey; lineal scions 
of the pansy and the chimpanzee, and but cousins-german to the cooing doves, 
the quacking ducks and the housemaids and policemen in the parks.
-  O' Henry, The Month of May

I saw the evening sun
And thought of what I've done to get to here
And I shed a tear

It's silly, marking time
A man who's in his prime
And I feel the sting

One day I may believe in Spring

-  Gavin Regnart, One Day I May Believe in Spring

It's May! It's May! 
The lusty month of May!
Those dreary vows that ev'ryone makes, 
Ev'ryone breaks. 
Ev'ryone makes divine mistakes! 
The lusty month of May!
-   Lerner and Lowe

The name for the month of 'May' has been believed to derive from 
'Maia', who was revered as the Roman 'Goddess of Springtime, of 
Growth and Increase', and the mother of 'Mercury', the winged 
messenger of the Gods. Yet this is disputed as before these 
deities featured in mythology the name 'Maius' or 'Magius', 
taken from the root 'Mag', meaning the 'Growing month' or
'Shooting month' was used.
-   Mystical May - Mystical World Wide Web

Violets in May
believe me when I say
your eyes are violet blue,
your lips alluring too.

Life can be so swell
picking violets in a dell.
Life can be so great
picking violets with your mate.
-  William Tate Bond, Violets in May

Yes, I will spend the livelong day
With Nature in this month of May;
And sit beneath the trees, and share
My bread with birds whose homes are there;
While cows lie down to eat, and sheep
Stand to their necks in grass so deep;
While birds do sing with all their might,
As though they felt the earth in flight.
-   William Henry Davies, In May

Beltane

Beltane  

Beltane: Celebrating the Seasons

Beltane and May Day - Myth*thing LInks and Lore

Can Teach Songs and Poems of Spring   

Celebrating May Day - The Weather Doctor   

Cross Quarter May Day

Cuttings - May.   Haiku and short poems by Michael P. Garofalo.  

Earth Calendar - Wiccan Holidays   

Elaine's Spring Page

Folklore Calendar

Greetings, Lore and Customs for Springtime

Haiku Spring

Holiday Links - Yahoo   

Japanese Women's Nature Poetry: Spring

May Celebrations - Pagan   

May - German Poets

May - Links from Yahoo

May - Mystical World Wide Web   

May Poem Hunter   

Months - Quotes, Poems, Links, Lore and Garden Chores

Mystical May - Mystical World Wide Web

Poems About Flowers

Quotes for Gardeners     Over 2,700 Quotes Arranged by 130 Topics.

Round the Maypole   

School of the Seasons - Celebrating May Day   Excellent folklore.  37K.

Songs of Spring

Spring and Easter Poetry

Spring Days   

Spring Quotations

Spring  -  Quotes, Poems, Sayings and Quips for Gardeners    

Spring: Links and Ideas for Teachers   

Spring Poems

Spring Poetry

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