I LOVE to wander through the woodlands hoary In the soft light of an autumnal day, When Summer gathers up her robes of glory, And like a dream of beauty glides away. How through each loved, familiar path she lin- gers, Serenely smiling through the golden mist, Tinting the wild grape with her dewy fingers Till the cool emerald turns to amethyst; Kindling the faint stars of the hazel, shining To light the gloom of autumn's mouldering halls, With hoary plumes the clematis entwining Where o'er the rock her withered garland falls. Warm lights are on the sleepy uplands waning Beneath soft clouds along the horizon rolled, Till the slant sunbeams through their fringes raining Bathe all the hills in melancholy gold. The moist winds breathe of crisped leaves and flowers In the damp hollows of the woodland sown. Mingling the freshness of autumnal showers With spicy airs from cedarn alleys blown. Beside the brook and on the umbered meadow, Where yellow fern-tufts fleck the faded ground, With folded lids beneath their palmy shadow The gentian nods, in dewy slumbers bound. Upon those soft, fringed lids the bee sits brood- ing, Like a fond lover loath to say farewell, Or with shut wings, through silken folds intrud- ing, Creeps near her heart his drowsy tale to tell. The little birds upon the hillside lonely Flit noiselessly along from spray to spray, Silent as a sweet wandering thought that only Shows its bright wings and softly glides away. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BLUE AND THE GRAY by FRANCIS MILES FINCH THE LAST CHANTEY by RUDYARD KIPLING SONNET: 23. ON HIS DECEASED WIFE by JOHN MILTON SING-SONG; A NURSERY RHYME BOOK: 50 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI WHEN LET BY RAIN by EDWARD TAYLOR TO HARTLEY COLERIDGE; SIX YEARS OLD by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH ON THE DEATH OF THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD SONG, FR. A VISION OF GIORGIONE: GEMMA'S SPRING SONG by GORDON BOTTOMLEY |