Lucy Larcom:
(March 5, 1824 – April 17, 1893).
American teacher, poet, and author.
She was one of the first teachers at Wheaton Female Seminary (now Wheaton College) in Norton, Massachusetts, teaching there from 1854 to 1862. During that time, she co-founded Rushlight Literary Magazine, a submission-based student literary magazine which is still published. From 1865 to 1873, she was the editor of the Boston-based Our Young Folks, which merged with St. Nicholas Magazine in 1874. In 1889, Larcom published one of the best-known accounts of New England childhood of her time, A New England Girlhood, commonly used as a reference in studying antebellum American childhood; the autobiographical text covers the early years of her life in Beverly Farms and Lowell, Massachusetts.
June falls asleep upon her bier of flowers. In vain are dewdrops sprinkled o’er her, in vain would fond winds fan her back to life, her hours are numbered on the floral dial.
When April steps aside for May, like diamonds, all the raindrops glisten, fresh violets open every day to some new bird, each hour we listen.
– “When April steps aside for May”
– April makes way for May;
– late spring transitions into a fuller, warmer flowering season.
– “all raindrops sparkle like diamonds”
– spring rain is not depicted gloomily, but as something beautiful and precious;
– a typical romantic image of nature.
– “fresh violets open every day”
– flowers represent renewal, growth, and daily blossoming.
– “for a new bird, every hour that we listen”
– every hour brings a new sound, a new birdsong;
– this emphasizes liveliness, anticipation, and attention to nature. 🖋️ Origin: As far as this quote can be traced:
– it is ‘probably a translation or paraphrase’ of an English verse line;
– it is ‘not really a proverb’ in the classical sense;
– it is usually associated with ’19th-century nature poetry’.
The probable English form reads roughly:
“When April steps aside for May,
like diamonds all the raindrops glisten;
fresh violets open every day;
to some new bird each hour we listen.”
👩🏫 Author: Lucy Larcom (1824–1893) fits well here.
Who was she?
– American poet, writer, and educator
– known for:
– nature lyric
– religious and moral poetry
– poems for younger readers and anthologies
Why this attribution is plausible:
– the tone is typically ’19th-century, melodious, and nature-oriented’
– Lucy Larcom indeed wrote a lot about ‘seasons, flowers, and birds’;
– these lines are often attributed to her poem ‘May’. ⚠️ Small nuance: Because such rules often end up in:
– anthologies,
– textbooks,
– quotation sites,
– and translated collections,
they sometimes circulate in ‘slightly deviating versions’. As a result:
– the precise wording may differ;
– the translation may be free;
– the source may sometimes be quoted without context.
So it is safest to say: It is probably not an old saying, but a poetic quote, usually attributed to Lucy Larcom, presumably from the poem “May”.
