Be wary in April

"Poets in other climes may rhapsodize about the vagaries of April weather, its laughter and tears, but in New England the month has inspired few local bards to lyric praise of the region's early spring weather,'' which can be very problematic and often unpredictable.

-- David Ludlum

Perhaps the most famous poetic reference to April is by T.S. Eliot, who  although he was born in St. Louis and, after Harvard, moved to England, came from an old and influential Massachusetts family. His chilling words at the opening of his poem "The Wasteland'':

"April is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing 

Memory and desire, stirring 

Dull roots with spring rain. 

Winter kept us warm, covering 

Earth in forgetful snow, feeding 

A little life with dried tubers. ''