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.