Classic and Contemporary Poetry
AUTUMN, by WILLIAM ASPENWALL BRADLEY Poet's Biography First Line: Now shorter grow november days Last Line: That haunts this hungry autumn air. Subject(s): Autumn; Seasons; Fall | ||||||||
Now shorter grow November days, And leaden ponds begin to glaze With their first ice, while every night The hoarfrost leaves the meadows white Like wimples spread upon the lawn By maidens who are up at dawn, And sparkling diamonds may be seen Strewing the close-clipped golfing green. But the slow sun dispels at noon The season's work begun too soon, Bidding faint filmy mists arise And fold in softest draperies The distant woodlands, bleak and bare, Until they seem to melt in air. See how the sun turns all to gold, Green tree trunks and brown garden mould, The waving yellow grass, and all Vine skeletons upon the wall, Sere leaves that strew the forest floor, The littered barnyard and the store Of sodden cornstalks, stacked in rows, In fields where, through the stubble, shows Fresh verdure, gage of distant spring, And of fresh harvests it will bring. Now, harvests o'er, his labors done, The farm-boy shoulders bag and gun And saunters forth with slouching stride, His nosing setter at his side, To beat in turn each well-known cover For quail, for woodcock, or for plover. And I, although no gun I bear, Am oft abroad in this bright air. For well I love the landscape thus, When, wrapt in hazes luminous, It lies no longer like a maid, In springtime's modest green arrayed, Or like a matron, in dull dress, Of summer's dusty leafiness, But like a tawny goddess lies In careless ease beneath the skies, And takes the sun's kiss on each breast -- Twin rounded hills -- that copse a nest Where love might linger with caresses. Those russet oak-leaves crown her tresses, That, from their fillets loose unbound, In rippling yellow waves spread round Her body splendid, shameless, bare, That haunts this hungry autumn air. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OUR AUTUMN by ELIZABETH AKERS ALLEN AN AUTUMN JOY by GEORGE ARNOLD A LEAF FALLS by MARION LOUISE BLISS THE FARMER'S BOY: AUTUMN by ROBERT BLOOMFIELD A LETTER IN OCTOBER by TED KOOSER AUTUMN EVENING by DAVID LEHMAN EVERYTHING THAT ACTS IS ACTUAL by DENISE LEVERTOV MEN OF HARLAN by WILLIAM ASPENWALL BRADLEY |
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