1816, The Year Without a Summer

In the spring of thirteen-fifteen There began an era of unpredictable weather It did not lift until eighteen-fifty-one You remember eighteen-sixteen as the year without a summer June eighteen-sixteen A sudden snowstorm blankets all the country side So Mary Shelley had to stay inside And she wrote Frankenstein Oh eighteen-sixteen was the year without a summer Grain couldn't ripen under these conditions, no It was brought in-doors in urns and pots It'd go from ninety-five degrees to freezing within hours A brutal struggle for the people and the starving livestock During the most sever years of this little ice age We looked for scapegoats to blame Many people tried to blame it all On a vast Freemason conspiracy Or Benjamin Franklin and his experiments with electricity The eruption of the volcano Tambora Blanketed the earth with ash That was the real cause discovered by some explorer Years later, looking back at the past I will give you My red color To take away your sickly pallor For you were very choleric of complexion Please beware the mounting sun And all dejection Eighteen-sixteen was the year without a summer