By The Annisquam
A Far bell tinkles in the hollow,
And heart and soul are fain to follow:
Gone is the rose and gone the swallow:
Autumn is here.
The wild geese draw at dusk their harrow
Above the ‘Squam the ebb leaves narrow:
The sea-winds chill you to the marrow:
Sad goes the year.
Among the woods the crows are calling:
The acorns and the leaves are falling:
At sea the fishing-boats are trawling:
Autumn is here.
The jay among the rocks is screaming,
And every way with crimson streaming:
Far up the shore the foam is creaming:
Sleep fills the Year.
The chipmunk on the stones is barking;
The red leaf every path is marking,
Where hills lean to the ocean harking:
Autumn is here.
The fields are starry with the aster,
Where Beauty dreams and dim Disaster
Draws near through mists that gather faster:
Farewell, sweet Year.
Beside the coves driftwood is burning,
And far at sea white sails are turning:
Each day seems filled with deeper yearning:
Autumn is here.
’Good-bye! good-bye!' the Summer’s saying:
‘Brief was my day as songs of Maying:
The time is come for psalms and praying:
Good-bye, sweet Year.’
Brown bend the ferns by rock and boulder;
The shore seems greyer; ocean older:
The days are misty; nights are colder:
Autumn is here.
The cricket in the grass is crying,
And sad winds in the old woods sighing;
They seem to say, 'Sweet Summer’s dying:
Weep for the Year.
‘She’s wreathed her hair with bay and berry,
And o’er dark pools, the wild-fowl ferry,
Leans dreaming ‘neath the wilding cherry:
Autumn is here.
’Good-bye! good-bye to Summer’s gladness:
To all her beauty, mirth and madness:
Come sit with us and dream in sadness:
So ends the Year.’
Other works by Madison Cawein...
To the Memory of George H. Ellwanger True Friend and Lover and Interpreter of Nature, as a Slight Token of Esteem and Admiration
Would I could talk as the flowers… To my soul! and the stars, in thei… Through Heaven! and tell to the h… The things that they say, so all m… The dreams they dream, and have to…
