When we developed written language, we significantly increased our functional memory and our ability to share insights and knowledge across time and space. The same thing happened with the invention of the printing press, the telegraph, and the radio.

Meaning: The rhyme presents a spring ague as medicine fit for a king. It gives a feverish illness a surprising positive value rather than simply treating it as misfortune.

Meaning: April’s wind is pictured as a horn announcing favourable conditions for hay and corn. The saying links an early-season sign with a hoped-for later yield.

Meaning: The saying takes a fair, clear twenty-fourth of August as grounds for hope about the coming autumn. One day is made a sign of a much longer period.

Meaning: The saying uses a sloe tree’s white blossom as a cue to sow barley. It gives a visible plant sign priority over whether the immediate weather is dry or wet.