July

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We go in withering July
To ply the hard incessant hoe;
Panting beneath the brazen sky
We sweat and grumble, but we go. ~ Ruth Pitter

The flames kindled on the 4th of July 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them.

July is the seventh month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and is, on average, the warmest month in most of the Northern hemisphere (where it is the second month of summer) and the coldest month in much of the Southern hemisphere (where it is the second month of winter). The second half of the year commences in July. In the Southern hemisphere, July is the seasonal equivalent of January in the Northern hemisphere.

Quotes

• The linden, in the fervors of July,
  Hums with a louder concert. When the wind
  Sweeps the broad forest in its summer prime,
  As when some master-hand exulting sweeps
  The keys of some great organ, ye give forth
  The music of the woodland depths, a hymn
  Of gladness and of thanks.
  • William Cullen Bryant, Among the Trees (1874), line 62.

• The English winter — ending in July,
  To recommence in August.
  • Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto 13, Stanza 42.

• Loud is the summer's busy song
  The smallest breeze can find a tongue,
  While insects of each tiny size
  Grow teasing with their melodies,
  Till noon burns with its blistering breath
  Around, and day lies still as death.
  • John Clare, July; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 412.

• Hot July brings cooling showers,
  Apricots and gillyflowers.
  • Sara Coleridge "The Months", Pretty Lessons in Verse for Small Children (1834).

• Answer July —
  Where is the Bee —
  Where is the Blush —
  Where is the Hay?

  Ah, said July —
  Where is the Seed —
  Where is the Bud —
  Where is the May —
  Answer Thee — Me—

  • Emily Dickinson, "Answer July".

• The flames kindled on the 4th of July 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them.
  • Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to John Adams (12 September 1821).

• We go in withering July
  To ply the hard incessant hoe;
  Panting beneath the brazen sky
  We sweat and grumble, but we go.
  • Ruth Pitter, "The Diehards", The Rude Potato (1941).

• The Summer looks out from her brazen tower,
  Through the flashing bars of July.
  • Francis Thompson, A Corymbus for Autumn (1891), Stanza 3.

• Many public-school children seem to know only two dates: 1492 and 4th of July; and as a rule they don't know what happened on either occasion.
  • Mark Twain, in his introduction to the rules for Mark Twain's Memory Builder : A Game for Acquiring and Retaining All Sorts of Dates (1891), also known as the "History Game", quoted in Mark Twain and the Novel : The Double-cross of Authority (1998) by Lawrence Howe, p. 10.

• In July the Sun is hot.
  Is it shining? No, it's not!
  • Michael Flanders, song "The Seasons".

Anonymous

• A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay.
  A swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon.
  A swarm of bees in July is not worth a fly.
  • English proverb

• If the first of July be rainy weather,
  It will rain, more of less, for four weeks together.
  • English proverb

• The glowing Ruby should adorn
  Those who in warm July are born,
  Then will they be exempt and free
  From love's doubt and anxiety.
  • English proverb

• Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon.
  July 1969 AD.
  We came in peace for all mankind.
  • Plaque left on the site of the first moon landing, read by Neil Armstrong while on the moon (20 July 1969).