The Lusty Month Of May Poem by David Mitchell

Now that the fiery sun both lights and warms the supple earth,
Now that the month of Gemini has come with joy and worth,
Now that the days are lengthening, now that the summer sky
Without a hint of cloud appears, a lucid heaven on high:
Now that the songbirds sing their song, and sweetly fill the air,
Now that earth breathes with healthfulness, has driven away all care,
And now the joy of summer has dispelled the wintry past,
Rejoice, my friends, for ’tis examination time at last!

The student diligent is working at the crack of dawn,
When Sol, unrisen, casts a twilight glimmer on the lawn;
The student indolent does no work till ’tis time to sleep,
And Time upon him stealthily with trademark scythe will creep.
The hour approaches when must come the undesired test,
When sinews crack and hearts beat fast within each nervous breast;
The candidates arrive on time (one hopes) or just before;
Now there's a hush: the invigilator opens wide the door.

“Please find your seat, the one that has a card with your name on it” –
You find a desk on which are written five lines of a sonnet –
“If you have on your person any mobile telephone,
Put it into this box, or into hell you will be thrown,
You mightn't intend to use it, nonetheless if it betide,
That you are found to have one, then you'll be disqualified.”

The Incantation starts; the Fiends of Lucifer arise
Invisible to all but to the candidates’ sad eyes:
The papers they are handed out, electrics handed in,
And finally: “Is anyone not ready to begin? ”

“You may begin”, - how long, how long ’twill be before this torment end!
The examined write their answers as the time itself doth spend –
And now there are remaining but ten lingering minutes more, -
A boy needs a spare pen - he lifts his hand (from writing sore) :

How leisurely the lady walks, as if a country stroll,
As if she did not know that rapid time away did roll:
She sees what he requires, and asks him whether he needs a “Spare pen? ”
And so she turns to walk towards the front of the hall again.
The boy sitting in front of him shows her he has a spare,
By lifting up a ballpoint pen into the dismal air;
The invigilatrix smiles and says that that was very kind,
But “we are not allowed” - these rules confuse my simple mind!

She gives the ill-starred student a spare pen right from the front –
He takes it with a gruff, but nonetheless a courteous, grunt:
He writes some words, but now ’tis time to “finish the sentence you're on, ”
And all the rest of it - how soon the Impartial Time has gone!
“I will dismiss you row by row, and not across the room”,
The invigilator says through the exasperating gloom;
“This row may go” - and now a too familiar creaking sound,
When jerks of chairs the entire atmosphere seem to fill round.

They breathe at last! At last they speak! A lilting Scottish voice
Requests that they take their discussion elsewhere to rejoice
Or weep with weary woe about what shortly was begun,
But now, as Prospero says, it is “a heaviness that’s gone”.
The sorrow of the dread examination now is o’er;
It will be in the future as it was in time of yore:
Neglecting education, the conscientious student crams
His head with trivia to pass his soul-destroying exams.

(Tuesday,16th May,2006.)