Song Meaning

The lyrics of "Do Away With April" paint a vivid picture of a speaker consumed by a singular, overwhelming dread: the arrival of April. This isn't just a seasonal preference; it's a desperate plea to literally erase a month from the calendar. The emotional texture is one of profound sadness and an almost childlike wish to escape an inevitable pain. The central tension here is the speaker's internal grief clashing with the relentless march of time. April, for the narrator, isn't just a month; it's a trigger, a painful reminder of "a love that went wrong." The parenthetical interjection, "(Dunno why it just went wrong)," is particularly striking, suggesting not just loss, but a lingering confusion or lack of closure that amplifies the sting of memory. The craft truly shines in the lyrics' repetitive, almost obsessive focus on April's erasure. Phrases like "Couldn't they do away with April" and the repeated desire to "throw it far, far, far away" underscore a deep-seated powerlessness. The suggestion to "take March / And make it twice as long" is a poignant, almost whimsical attempt to create a buffer, a desperate measure to avoid the month that holds such specific, unbearable memories. Even the romantic ideal of "Paris" is re-evaluated, with the speaker suggesting it "be just as nice in May," highlighting how thoroughly April has been tainted. Ultimately, these lyrics are effective because they tap into a universal experience of grief: how specific times, places, or even seasons can become irrevocably linked to past pain. The raw, unvarnished plea to an unspecified "they" to simply make a month disappear, coupled with the simple, direct language, makes the speaker's anguish palpable and deeply resonant. It's a powerful expression of how memory can warp perception, turning a routine calendar event into an emotional minefield.