WHEN TO MARRY
Marry when the year is new,
Always loving, kind, and true.
When FEBRUARY birds do mate
You may wed or dread your fate.
If you wed when MARCH winds blow
Joy and sorrow both you'll know.
Marry in APRIL when you can—
Joy for maiden and for man.
Marry in the month of MAY
You will surely rue the day.
Marry when JUNE roses blow
Over land and sea you'll go.
They who in JULY do wed,
Must labor always for their bread.
Whoever wed in AUGUST be
Many a change are sure to see.
Marry in SEPTEMBER'S shine
Your living will be rich and fine.
If in OCTOBER you do marry
Love will come, but riches tarry.
If you wed in bleak NOVEMBER,
Only joy will come, remember.
When DECEMBER snows fall fast
Marry and true love will last.
Another poet has given us a different version of the same theme:
Married in January's frost and rime,
Widowed you'll be before your time;
Married in February's sleety weather,
Life you'll tread in tune together;
Married when March winds shrill and roar,
Your home will lie on a foreign shore;
Married 'neath April's changeful skies,
A checkered path before you lies;
Married when bees or May-blooms flit,
Strangers around your board will sit;
Married in queen-rose month of June,
Life will be one long honeymoon;
Married in July's flower-banks' blaze
Bitter-sweet memories in after days;
Married in August's heat and drowse,
Lover and friend in your chosen spouse;
Married in gold September's glow,
Smooth and serene your life will flow;
Married when leaves in October thin,
Toil and hardship for you begin;
Married in veils of November mist,
Fortune your wedding ring has kissed;
When December's snows fall fast
Marry and true love will last.