Wednesday, October 15, 2008

October, summed up

One of my all time favorite poems - enjoy!

October's Bright Blue Weather

O SUNS and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October's bright blue weather;

When loud the bumble-bee makes haste,
Belated, thriftless vagrant,
And Golden-Rod is dying fast,
And lanes with grapes are fragrant;

When Gentians roll their fringes tight
To save them for the morning,
And chestnuts fall from satin burrs
Without a sound of warning;

When on the ground red apples lie
In piles like jewels shining,
And redder still on old stone walls
Are leaves of woodbine twining;

When all the lovely wayside things
Their white-winged seeds are sowing,
And in the fields, still green and fair,
Late aftermaths are growing;

When springs run low, and on the brooks,
In idle golden freighting,
Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush
Of woods, for winter waiting;

When comrades seek sweet country haunts,
By twos and twos together,
And count like misers, hour by hour,
October's bright blue weather.

O suns and skies and flowers of June,
Count all your boasts together,
Love loveth best of all the year
October's bright blue weather.

Helen Hunt Jackson, 1830 - 1885


11 comments:

Missy said...

Lovely use of the language! Thank you for sharing.

Cheesecake Maven said...

I LOVE AUTUMN!!!!!!!! As you can see on my blog. About to set off on yet another hike to enjoy the last bright colors of fall. I think I'll hike Trout Run Trail today. Great poem, I've always loved that one. (Grandma could recite that one by heart, and many others as you know!)

themom said...

I love Autumn colors...drat - they haven't been so colorful here this year - rather drab. Now it is dank and dreary - which makes for a depressing day. So I will look at your lovely colorful picture for my sunshine!

Christopher Tassava said...

Fantastic!

Anonymous said...

Helen Hunt Jackson, wasn't she the woman who wrote "Ramona?"

Anonymous said...

Ooooh. I miss Midwestern autumn.

Mnmom said...

Kirby - I believe Beverly Cleary wrote the Ramona series.

Anonymous said...

No, not Ramona the Pest. Ramona, the play about mistreatment of the California Indians. Common mistake. :)

Johnny Yen said...

We had a perfect October day and evening here. I picked up my kids (school for my stepdaughter, my ex's house for my son), took them out to eat and then we went to a book reading by Ursula Bielski, a local author who writes about ghosts here in Chicago. We then ran out and got pumpkins and they spent the rest of the evening carving them. Post to follow.

Shannon said...

Love, love, love!

I also love how you now call your blogroll "the new patriots". That makes me happy each time I see it.

Sheleta said...

I'm from Texas, so we never have "fall". Our trees stay green all year round cause the temps never dip below 55 degrees! Well, being a home owner in Minnesota, I just raked a yard full of leaves. My body hurts all over, including my teeth. Everything pains me right now, and I ain't even half way done. I'm ready for fall to be over! Either that or we need to cut all these damn trees down. Cause tonight I'll be dreaming about leaves!!!!