[ { "title": "A Song of Autumn", "author": "Adam Lindsay Gordon", "lines": [ "‘WHERE shall we go for our garlands glad", "At the falling of the year,", "When the burnt-up banks are yellow and sad,", "When the boughs are yellow and sere?", "Where are the old ones that once we had,", "And when are the new ones near?", "What shall we do for our garlands glad", "At the falling of the year?’", "‘Child! can I tell where the garlands go?", "Can I say where the lost leaves veer", "On the brown-burnt banks, when the wild winds blow,", "When they drift through the dead-wood drear?", "Girl! when the garlands of next year glow,", "You may gather again, my dear—", "But I go where the last year’s lost leaves go", "At the falling of the year.’" ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Autumn And Winter", "author": "Algernon Charles Swinburne", "lines": [ "Three months bade wane and wax the wintering moon", "Between two dates of death, while men were fain", "Yet of the living light that all too soon", "Three months bade wane.", "", "Cold autumn, wan with wrath of wind and rain,", "Saw pass a soul sweet as the sovereign tune", "That death smote silent when he smote again.", "", "First went my friend, in life's mid light of noon,", "Who loved the lord of music: then the strain", "Whence earth was kindled like as heaven in June", "Three months bade wane.", "", "", "", "A herald soul before its master's flying", "Touched by some few moons first the darkling goal", "Where shades rose up to greet the shade, espying", "A herald soul;", "", "Shades of dead lords of music, who control", "Men living by the might of men undying,", "With strength of strains that make delight of dole.", "", "The deep dense dust on death's dim threshold lying", "Trembled with sense of kindling sound that stole", "Through darkness, and the night gave ear, descrying", "A herald soul.", "", "", "", "One went before, one after, but so fast", "They seem gone hence together, from the shore", "Whence we now gaze: yet ere the mightier passed", "One went before;", "", "One whose whole heart of love, being set of yore", "On that high joy which music lends us, cast", "Light round him forth of music's radiant store.", "", "Then went, while earth on winter glared aghast,", "The mortal god he worshipped, through the door", "Wherethrough so late, his lover to the last,", "One went before.", "", "", "", "A star had set an hour before the sun", "Sank from the skies wherethrough his heart's pulse yet", "Thrills audibly: but few took heed, or none,", "A star had set.", "", "All heaven rings back, sonorous with regret,", "The deep dirge of the sunset: how should one", "Soft star be missed in all the concourse met?", "", "But, O sweet single heart whose work is done,", "Whose songs are silent, how should I forget", "That ere the sunset's fiery goal was won", "A star had set?" ], "linecount": "44" }, { "title": "Autumn.", "author": "Alexander Pope", "lines": [ "THE THIRD PASTORAL, Or HYLAS AND ÆGON.", "", "TO MR WYCHERLEY.", "", "Beneath the shade a spreading beech displays,", "Hylas and Ægon sung their rural lays;", "This mourn'd a faithless, that an absent love.", "And Delia's name and Doris' fill'd the grove.", "Ye Mantuan nymphs, your sacred succour bring;", "Hylas and Ægon's rural lays I sing.", "", "Thou, whom the Nine with Plautus' wit inspire,", "The art of Terence, and Menander's fire;", "Whose sense instructs us, and whose humour charms,", "Whose judgment sways us, and whose spirit warms!", "Oh, skill'd in Nature! see the hearts of swains,", "Their artless passions, and their tender pains.", "", "Now setting Phoebus shone serenely bright,", "And fleecy clouds were streak'd with purple light;", "When tuneful Hylas, with melodious moan,", "Taught rocks to weep, and made the mountains groan.", "", "Go, gentle gales, and bear my sighs away!", "To Delia's ear the tender notes convey.", "As some sad turtle his lost love deplores,", "And with deep murmurs fills the sounding shores,", "Thus, far from Delia, to the winds I mourn,", "Alike unheard, unpitied, and forlorn.", "", "Go, gentle gales, and bear my sighs along!", "For her, the feather'd choirs neglect their song:", "For her, the limes their pleasing shades deny;", "For her, the lilies hang their heads and die.", "Ye flowers that droop, forsaken by the spring,", "Ye birds that, left by summer, cease to sing,", "Ye trees that fade when autumn-heats remove,", "Say, is not absence death to those who love?", "", "Go, gentle gales, and bear my sighs away!", "Cursed be the fields that cause my Delia's stay;", "Fade every blossom, wither every tree,", "Die every flower, and perish all but she.", "", "What have I said? Where'er my Delia flies,", "Let spring attend, and sudden flowers arise;", "Let opening roses knotted oaks adorn,", "And liquid amber drop from every thorn.", "", "Go, gentle gales, and bear my sighs along!", "The birds shall cease to tune their evening song,", "The winds to breathe, the waving woods to move,", "And streams to murmur, ere I cease to love.", "Not bubbling fountains to the thirsty swain,", "Not balmy sleep to labourers faint with pain,", "Not showers to larks, or sunshine to the bee,", "Are half so charming as thy sight to me.", "Go, gentle gales, and bear my sighs away!", "Come, Delia, come; ah, why this long delay?", "Through rocks and caves the name of Delia sounds,", "Delia, each care and echoing rock rebounds.", "Ye Powers, what pleasing frenzy soothes my mind!", "Do lovers dream, or is my Delia kind?", "She comes, my Delia comes!--Now cease, my lay,", "And cease, ye gales, to bear my sighs away!", "", "Next Ægon sung, while Windsor groves admired;", "Rehearse, ye Muses, what yourselves inspired.", "", "Resound, ye hills, resound my mournful strain!", "Of perjured Doris, dying I complain:", "Here where the mountains, lessening as they rise,", "Lose the low vales, and steal into the skies:", "While labouring oxen, spent with toil and heat,", "In their loose traces from the field retreat:", "While curling smokes from village-tops are seen,", "And the fleet shades glide o'er the dusky green.", "", "Resound, ye hills, resound my mournful lay!", "Beneath yon poplar oft we pass'd the day:", "Oft on the rind I carved her amorous vows,", "While she with garlands hung the bending boughs:", "The garlands fade, the vows are worn away;", "So dies her love, and so my hopes decay.", "", "Resound, ye hills, resound my mournful strain!", "Now bright Arcturus glads the teeming grain,", "Now golden fruits on loaded branches shine,", "And grateful clusters swell with floods of wine;", "Now blushing berries paint the yellow grove;", "Just gods! shall all things yield returns but love?", "", "Resound, ye hills, resound my mournful lay!", "The shepherds cry, 'Thy flocks are left a prey'--", "Ah! what avails it me, the flocks to keep,", "Who lost my heart--while I preserved my sheep.", "Pan came, and ask'd, what magic caused my smart,", "Or what ill eyes malignant glances dart?", "What eyes but hers, alas, have power to move?", "And is there magic but what dwells in love?", "", "Resound, ye hills, resound my mournful strains!", "I'll fly from shepherds, flocks, and flowery plains.", "From shepherds, flocks, and plains, I may remove,", "Forsake mankind, and all the world--but Love!", "I know thee, Love! on foreign mountains bred,", "Wolves gave thee suck, and savage tigers fed.", "Thou wert from Etna's burning entrails torn,", "Got by fierce whirlwinds, and in thunder born!", "", "Resound, ye hills, resound my mournful lay!", "Farewell, ye woods; adieu, the light of day!", "One leap from yonder cliff shall end my pains;", "No more, ye hills, no more resound my strains!", "", "Thus sung the shepherds till the approach of night,", "The skies yet blushing with departing light,", "When falling dews with spangles deck'd the glade,", "And the low sun had lengthen'd every shade." ], "linecount": "102" }, { "title": "The Autumn", "author": "Elizabeth Barrett Browning", "lines": [ "Go, sit upon the lofty hill,", "And turn your eyes around,", "Where waving woods and waters wild", "Do hymn an autumn sound.", "The summer sun is faint on them --", "The summer flowers depart --", "Sit still -- as all transform'd to stone,", "Except your musing heart.", "", "How there you sat in summer-time,", "May yet be in your mind;", "And how you heard the green woods sing", "Beneath the freshening wind.", "Though the same wind now blows around,", "You would its blast recall;", "For every breath that stirs the trees,", "Doth cause a leaf to fall.", "", "Oh! like that wind, is all the mirth", "That flesh and dust impart:", "We cannot bear its visitings,", "When change is on the heart.", "Gay words and jests may make us smile,", "When Sorrow is asleep;", "But other things must make us smile,", "When Sorrow bids us weep!", "", "The dearest hands that clasp our hands, --", "Their presence may be o'er;", "The dearest voice that meets our ear,", "That tone may come no more!", "Youth fades; and then, the joys of youth,", "Which once refresh'd our mind,", "Shall come -- as, on those sighing woods,", "The chilling autumn wind.", "", "Hear not the wind -- view not the woods;", "Look out o'er vale and hill-", "In spring, the sky encircled them --", "The sky is round them still.", "Come autumn's scathe -- come winter's cold --", "Come change -- and human fate!", "Whatever prospect Heaven doth bound,", "Can ne'er be desolate." ], "linecount": "40" }, { "title": "The name -- of it -- is \"Autumn\" --", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "The name -- of it -- is \"Autumn\" --", "The hue -- of it -- is Blood --", "An Artery -- upon the Hill --", "A Vein -- along the Road --", "", "Great Globules -- in the Alleys --", "And Oh, the Shower of Stain --", "When Winds -- upset the Basin --", "And spill the Scarlet Rain --", "", "It sprinkles Bonnets -- far below --", "It gathers ruddy Pools --", "Then -- eddies like a Rose -- away --", "Upon Vermilion Wheels --" ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "As Summer into Autumn slips", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "As Summer into Autumn slips", "And yet we sooner say", "\"The Summer\" than \"the Autumn,\" lest", "We turn the sun away,", "", "And almost count it an Affront", "The presence to concede", "Of one however lovely, not", "The one that we have loved --", "", "So we evade the charge of Years", "On one attempting shy", "The Circumvention of the Shaft", "Of Life's Declivity." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "Besides the Autumn poets sing", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Besides the Autumn poets sing", "A few prosaic days", "A little this side of the snow", "And that side of the Haze --", "", "A few incisive Mornings --", "A few Ascetic Eves --", "Gone -- Mr. Bryant's \"Golden Rod\" --", "And Mr. Thomson's \"sheaves.\"", "", "Still, is the bustle in the Brook --", "Sealed are the spicy valves --", "Mesmeric fingers softly touch", "The Eyes of many Elves --", "", "Perhaps a squirrel may remain --", "My sentiments to share --", "Grant me, Oh Lord, a sunny mind --", "Thy windy will to bear!" ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "No Autumn's intercepting Chill", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "No Autumn's intercepting Chill", "Appalls this Tropic Breast --", "But African Exuberance", "And Asiatic rest." ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "Autumn -- overlooked my Knitting --", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Autumn -- overlooked my Knitting --", "Dyes -- said He -- have I --", "Could disparage a Flamingo --", "Show Me them -- said I --", "", "Cochineal -- I chose -- for deeming", "It resemble Thee --", "And the little Border -- Dusker --", "For resembling Me --" ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "I am the autumnal sun", "author": "Henry David Thoreau", "lines": [ "Sometimes a mortal feels in himself Nature", "-- not his Father but his Mother stirs", "within him, and he becomes immortal with her", "immortality. From time to time she claims", "kindredship with us, and some globule", "from her veins steals up into our own.", "", "I am the autumnal sun,", "With autumn gales my race is run;", "When will the hazel put forth its flowers,", "Or the grape ripen under my bowers?", "When will the harvest or the hunter's moon", "Turn my midnight into mid-noon?", "I am all sere and yellow,", "And to my core mellow.", "The mast is dropping within my woods,", "The winter is lurking within my moods,", "And the rustling of the withered leaf", "Is the constant music of my grief...." ], "linecount": "18" }, { "title": "Autumn Within", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "It is autumn; not without", "But within me is the cold.", "Youth and spring are all about;", "It is I that have grown old.", "", "Birds are darting through the air,", "Singing, building without rest;", "Life is stirring everywhere,", "Save within my lonely breast.", "", "There is silence: the dead leaves", "Fall and rustle and are still;", "Beats no flail upon the sheaves,", "Comes no murmur from the mill." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "AUTUMN", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "Thou comest, Autumn, heralded by the rain,", "With banners, by great gales incessant fanned,", "Brighter than brightest silks of Samarcand,", "And stately oxen harnessed to thy wain!", "Thou standest, like imperial Charlemagne,", "Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand", "Outstretched with benedictions o'er the land,", "Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!", "Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended", "So long beneath the heaven's o'er-hanging eaves;", "Thy steps are by the farmer's prayers attended;", "Like flames upon an altar shine the sheaves;", "And, following thee, in thy ovation splendid,", "Thine almoner, the wind, scatters the golden leaves!" ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "AUTUMN", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "Thou comest, Autumn, heralded by the rain,", "With banners, by great gales incessant fanned,", "Brighter than brightest silks of Samarcand,", "And stately oxen harnessed to thy wain!", "Thou standest, like imperial Charlemagne,", "Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand", "Outstretched with benedictions o'er the land,", "Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!", "Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended", "So long beneath the heaven's o'er-hanging eaves;", "Thy steps are by the farmer's prayers attended;", "Like flames upon an altar shine the sheaves;", "And, following thee, in thy ovation splendid,", "Thine almoner, the wind, scatters the golden leaves!" ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Elegy IX: The Autumnal", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "No spring nor summer Beauty hath such grace", "As I have seen in one autumnall face.", "Young beauties force our love, and that's a rape,", "This doth but counsel, yet you cannot 'scape.", "If 'twere a shame to love, here 'twere no shame,", "Affection here takes Reverence's name.", "Were her first years the Golden Age; that's true,", "But now she's gold oft tried, and ever new.", "That was her torrid and inflaming time,", "This is her tolerable Tropique clime.", "Fair eyes, who asks more heat than comes from hence,", "He in a fever wishes pestilence.", "Call not these wrinkles, graves; if graves they were,", "They were Love's graves; for else he is no where.", "Yet lies not Love dead here, but here doth sit", "Vowed to this trench, like an Anachorit.", "", "And here, till hers, which must be his death, come,", "He doth not dig a grave, but build a tomb.", "Here dwells he, though he sojourn ev'ry where,", "In progress, yet his standing house is here.", "Here, where still evening is; not noon, nor night;", "Where no voluptuousness, yet all delight", "In all her words, unto all hearers fit,", "You may at revels, you at counsel, sit.", "This is Love's timber, youth his under-wood;", "There he, as wine in June enrages blood,", "Which then comes seasonabliest, when our taste", "And appetite to other things is past.", "Xerxes' strange Lydian love, the Platane tree,", "Was loved for age, none being so large as she,", "Or else because, being young, nature did bless", "Her youth with age's glory, Barrenness.", "If we love things long sought, Age is a thing", "Which we are fifty years in compassing;", "If transitory things, which soon decay,", "Age must be loveliest at the latest day.", "But name not winter-faces, whose skin's slack;", "Lank, as an unthrift's purse; but a soul's sack;", "Whose eyes seek light within, for all here's shade;", "Whose mouths are holes, rather worn out than made;", "Whose every tooth to a several place is gone,", "To vex their souls at Resurrection;", "Name not these living deaths-heads unto me,", "For these, not ancient, but antique be.", "I hate extremes; yet I had rather stay", "With tombs than cradles, to wear out a day.", "Since such love's natural lation is, may still", "My love descend, and journey down the hill,", "Not panting after growing beauties so,", "I shall ebb out with them, who homeward go." ], "linecount": "50" }, { "title": "To Autumn", "author": "John Keats", "lines": [ "I", "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,", " Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;", "Conspiring with him how to load and bless", " With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;", "To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,", " And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;", " To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells", " With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,", "And still more, later flowers for the bees,", "Until they think warm days will never cease,", " For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.", "", "II", "Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?", " Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find", "Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,", " Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;", "Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,", " Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook", " Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:", "And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep", " Steady thy laden head across a brook;", " Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,", " Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.", "", "III", "Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?", " Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,--", "While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,", " And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;", "Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn", " Among the river sallows, borne aloft", " Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;", "And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;", " Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft", " The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;", " And gathering swallows twitter in the skies." ], "linecount": "36" }, { "title": "Ode To Autumn", "author": "John Keats", "lines": [ "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,", "Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;", "Conspiring with him how to load and bless", "With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;", "To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,", "And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;", "To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells", "With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,", "And still more, later flowers for the bees,", "Until they think warm days will never cease,", "For Summer has o'er-brimmed their clammy cell.", "", "Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?", "Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find", "Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,", "Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;", "Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep,", "Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook", "Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers;", "And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep", "Steady thy laden head across a brook;", "Or by a cider-press, with patient look,", "Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.", "", "Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?", "Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,---", "While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,", "And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;", "Then in a wailful choir, the small gnats mourn", "Among the river sallows, borne aloft", "Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;", "And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;", "Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft", "The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft,", "And gathering swallows twitter in the skies." ], "linecount": "33" }, { "title": "Merry Autumn", "author": "Paul Laurence Dunbar", "lines": [ "It's all a farce,—these tales they tell", " About the breezes sighing,", "And moans astir o'er field and dell,", " Because the year is dying.", "", "Such principles are most absurd,—", " I care not who first taught 'em;", "There's nothing known to beast or bird", " To make a solemn autumn.", "", "In solemn times, when grief holds sway", " With countenance distressing,", "You'll note the more of black and gray", " Will then be used in dressing.", "", "Now purple tints are all around;", " The sky is blue and mellow;", "And e'en the grasses turn the ground", " From modest green to yellow.", "", "The seed burs all with laughter crack", " On featherweed and jimson;", "And leaves that should be dressed in black", " Are all decked out in crimson.", "", "A butterfly goes winging by;", " A singing bird comes after;", "And Nature, all from earth to sky,", " Is bubbling o'er with laughter.", "", "The ripples wimple on the rills,", " Like sparkling little lasses;", "The sunlight runs along the hills,", " And laughs among the grasses.", "", "The earth is just so full of fun", " It really can't contain it;", "And streams of mirth so freely run", " The heavens seem to rain it.", "", "Don't talk to me of solemn days", " In autumn's time of splendor,", "Because the sun shows fewer rays,", " And these grow slant and slender.", "", "Why, it's the climax of the year,—", " The highest time of living!—", "Till naturally its bursting cheer", " Just melts into thanksgiving." ], "linecount": "40" }, { "title": "Autumn Fires", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "In the other gardens", "And all up the vale,", "From the autumn bonfires", "See the smoke trail!", "", "Pleasant summer over", "And all the summer flowers,", "The red fire blazes,", "The grey smoke towers.", "", "Sing a song of seasons!", "Something bright in all!", "Flowers in the summer,", "Fires in the fall!" ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "Autumn", "author": "Thomas Hood", "lines": [ "I Saw old Autumn in the misty morn", "Stand shadowless like Silence, listening", "To silence, for no lonely bird would sing", "Into his hollow ear from woods forlorn,", "Nor lowly hedge nor solitary thorn;—", "Shaking his languid locks all dewy bright", "With tangled gossamer that fell by night,", "Pearling his coronet of golden corn.", "", "Where are the songs of Summer?—With the sun,", "Oping the dusky eyelids of the south,", "Till shade and silence waken up as one,", "And Morning sings with a warm odorous mouth.", "Where are the merry birds?—Away, away,", "On panting wings through the inclement skies,", "Lest owls should prey", "Undazzled at noonday,", "And tear with horny beak their lustrous eyes.", "", "Where are the blooms of Summer?—In the west,", "Blushing their last to the last sunny hours,", "When the mild Eve by sudden Night is prest", "Like tearful Proserpine, snatch'd from her flow'rs", "To a most gloomy breast.", "Where is the pride of Summer,—the green prime,—", "The many, many leaves all twinkling?—Three", "On the moss'd elm; three on the naked lime", "Trembling,—and one upon the old oak-tree!", "Where is the Dryad's immortality?—", "Gone into mournful cypress and dark yew,", "Or wearing the long gloomy Winter through", "In the smooth holly's green eternity.", "", "The squirrel gloats on his accomplish'd hoard,", "The ants have brimm'd their garners with ripe grain,", "And honey bees have stored", "The sweets of Summer in their luscious cells;", "The swallows all have wing'd across the main;", "But here the Autumn melancholy dwells,", "And sighs her tearful spells", "Amongst the sunless shadows of the plain.", "Alone, alone,", "Upon a mossy stone,", "She sits and reckons up the dead and gone", "With the last leaves for a love-rosary,", "Whilst all the wither'd world looks drearily,", "Like a dim picture of the drownèd past", "In the hush'd mind's mysterious far away,", "Doubtful what ghostly thing will steal the last", "Into that distance, gray upon the gray.", "", "O go and sit with her, and be o'ershaded", "Under the languid downfall of her hair:", "She wears a coronal of flowers faded", "Upon her forehead, and a face of care;—", "There is enough of wither'd everywhere", "To make her bower,—and enough of gloom;", "There is enough of sadness to invite,", "If only for the rose that died, whose doom", "Is Beauty's,—she that with the living bloom", "Of conscious cheeks most beautifies the light:", "There is enough of sorrowing, and quite", "Enough of bitter fruits the earth doth bear,—", "Enough of chilly droppings for her bowl;", "Enough of fear and shadowy despair,", "To frame her cloudy prison for the soul!" ], "linecount": "62" }, { "title": "Autumn", "author": "Walter Savage Landor", "lines": [ "MILD is the parting year, and sweet", " The odour of the falling spray;", "Life passes on more rudely fleet,", " And balmless is its closing day.", "", "I wait its close, I court its gloom,", " But mourn that never must there fall", "Or on my breast or on my tomb", " The tear that would have soothed it all." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "Late Autumn", "author": "William Allingham", "lines": [ "October - and the skies are cool and gray", "O'er stubbles emptied of their latest sheaf,", "Bare meadow, and the slowly falling leaf.", "The dignity of woods in rich decay", "Accords full well with this majestic grief", "That clothes our solemn purple hills to-day,", "Whose afternoon is hush'd, and wintry brief", "Only a robin sings from any spray.", "", "And night sends up her pale cold moon, and spills", "White mist around the hollows of the hills,", "Phantoms of firth or lake; the peasant sees", "His cot and stockyard, with the homestead trees,", "Islanded; but no foolish terror thrills", "His perfect harvesting; he sleeps at ease." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Autumnal Sonnet", "author": "William Allingham", "lines": [ "Now Autumn's fire burns slowly along the woods,", "And day by day the dead leaves fall and melt,", "And night by night the monitory blast", "Wails in the key-hold, telling how it pass'd", "O'er empty fields, or upland solitudes,", "Or grim wide wave; and now the power is felt", "Of melancholy, tenderer in its moods", "Than any joy indulgent summer dealt.", "Dear friends, together in the glimmering eve,", "Pensive and glad, with tones that recognise", "The soft invisible dew in each one's eyes,", "It may be, somewhat thus we shall have leave", "To walk with memory,--when distant lies", "Poor Earth, where we were wont to live and grieve." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Autumn", "author": "William Morris", "lines": [ "Laden Autumn here I stand", "Worn of heart, and weak of hand:", "Nought but rest seems good to me,", "Speak the word that sets me free." ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "An Autumn Reverie", "author": "William Topaz McGonagall", "lines": [ "Alas! Beautiful Summer now hath fled,", "And the face of Nature doth seem dead,", "And the leaves are withered, and falling off the trees,", "By the nipping and chilling autumnal breeze.", "", "The pleasures of the little birds are all fled,", "And with the cold many of them will be found dead,", "Because the leaves of the trees are scattered in the blast,", "And makes the feathered creatures feel downcast.", "", "Because there are no leaves on the trees to shield them from the storm", "On a windy, and rainy, cloudy morn;", "Which makes their little hearts throb with pain,", "By the chilling blast and the pitiless rain.", "", "But still they are more contented than the children of God,", "As long as they can pick up a worm from the sod,", "Or anything they can get to eat,", "Just, for instance, a stale crust of bread or a grain of wheat.", "", "Oh! Think of the little birds in the time of the snow,", "Also of the little street waifs, that are driven to and fro,", "And trembling in the cold blast, and chilled to the bone,", "For the want of food and clothing, and a warm home.", "", "Besides think of the sorrows of the wandering poor,", "That are wandering in the cold blast from door to door;", "And begging, for Heaven's sake, a crust of bread,", "And alas! Not knowing where to lay their head.", "", "While the rich are well fed and covered from the cold,", "While the poor are starving, both young and old;", "Alas! It is the case in this boasted Christian land,", "Where as the rich are told to be kind to the poor, is God's command.", "", "Oh! Think of the working man when he's no work to do,", "Who's got a wife and family, perhaps four or two,", "And the father searching for work, and no work can be had,", "The thought, I'm sure, 'tis enough to drive the poor man mad.", "", "Because for his wife and family he must feel,", "And perhaps the thought thereof will cause him to steal", "Bread for his family, that are starving at home,", "While the thought thereof makes him sigh heavily and groan.", "", "Alas! The pangs of hunger are very hard to hide,", "And few people can their temper control,", "Or become reconciled to their fate,", "Especially when they cannot find anything to eat.", "", "Oh! Think of the struggles of the poor to make a living,", "Because the rich unto them seldom are giving;", "Wereas they are told he that giveth to the poor lendeth unto the Lord,", "But alas! they rather incline their money to hoard.", "", "Then theres the little news-vendors in the street,", "Running about perhaps with bare feet;", "And if the rich chance to see such creatures in the street,", "In general they make a sudden retreat." ], "linecount": "48" }, { "title": "Autumn", "author": "John Clare", "lines": [ "Syren of sullen moods and fading hues,", "Yet haply not incapable of joy,", " Sweet Autumn! I thee hail", " With welcome all unfeigned;", "", "And oft as morning from her lattice peeps", "To beckon up the sun, I seek with thee", " To drink the dewy breath", " Of fields left fragrant then,", "", "In solitudes, where no frequented paths", "But what thy own foot makes betray thy home,", " Stealing obtrusive there", " To meditate thy end:", "", "By overshadowed ponds, in woody nooks,", "With ramping sallows lined, and crowding sedge,", " Which woo the winds to play,", " And with them dance for joy;", "", "And meadow pools, torn wide by lawless floods,", "Where water-lilies spread their oily leaves,", " On which, as wont, the fly", " Oft battens in the sun;", "", "Where leans the mossy willow half way oer,", "On which the shepherd crawls astride to throw", " His angle, clear of weeds", " That crowd the water's brim;", "", "Or crispy hills, and hollows scant of sward,", "Where step by step the patient lonely boy", " Hath cut rude flights of stairs", " To climb their steepy sides;", "", "Then track along their feet, grown hoarse with noise,", "The crawling brook, that ekes its weary speed,", " And struggles through the weeds", " With faint and sullen brawl.", "", "These haunts I long have favoured, more as now", "With thee thus wandering, moralizing on,", " Stealing glad thoughts from grief,", " And happy, though I sigh.", "", "Sweet Vision, with the wild dishevelled hair,", "And raiment shadowy of each wind's embrace,", " Fain would I win thine harp", " To one accordant theme;", "", "Now not inaptly craved, communing thus,", "Beneath the curdled arms of this stunt oak,", " While pillowed on the grass,", " We fondly ruminate", "", "Oer the disordered scenes of woods and fields,", "Ploughed lands, thin travelled with half-hungry sheep,", " Pastures tracked deep with cows,", " Where small birds seek for seed:", "", "Marking the cow-boy that so merry trills", "His frequent, unpremeditated song,", " Wooing the winds to pause,", " Till echo brawls again;", "", "As on with plashy step, and clouted shoon,", "He roves, half indolent and self-employed,", " To rob the little birds", " Of hips and pendent haws,", "", "And sloes, dim covered as with dewy veils,", "And rambling bramble-berries, pulp and sweet,", " Arching their prickly trails", " Half oer the narrow lane:", "", "Noting the hedger front with stubborn face", "The dank blea wind, that whistles thinly by", " His leathern garb, thorn proof,", " And cheek red hot with toil.", "", "While oer the pleachy lands of mellow brown,", "The mower's stubbling scythe clogs to his foot", " The ever eking whisp,", " With sharp and sudden jerk,", "", "Till into formal rows the russet shocks", "Crowd the blank field to thatch time-weathered barns,", " And hovels rude repair,", " Stript by disturbing winds.", "", "See! from the rustling scythe the haunted hare", "Scampers circuitous, with startled ears", " Prickt up, then squat, as bye", " She brushes to the woods,", "", "Where reeded grass, breast-high and undisturbed,", "Forms pleasant clumps, through which the soothing winds", " Soften her rigid fears,", " And lull to calm repose.", "", "Wild sorceress! me thy restless mood delights,", "More than the stir of summer's crowded scenes,", " Where, jostled in the din,", " Joy palled my ear with song;", "", "Heart-sickening for the silence that is thine,", "Not broken inharmoniously, as now", " That lone and vagrant bee", " Booms faint with wearp chime.", "", "Now filtering winds thin winnow through the woods", "In tremulous noise, that bids, at every breath,", " Some sickly cankered leaf", " Let go its hold, and die.", "", "And now the bickering storm, with sudden start,", "In flirting fits of anger carps aloud,", " Thee urging to thine end,", " Sore wept by troubled skies.", "", "And yet, sublime in grief, thy thoughts delight", "To show me visions of most gorgeous dyes,", " Haply forgetting now", " They but prepare thy shroud;", "", "Thy pencil dashing its excess of shades,", "Improvident of waste, till every bough", " Burns with thy mellow touch", " Disorderly divine.", "", "Soon must I view thee as a pleasant dream", "Droop faintly, and so sicken for thine end,", " As sad the winds sink low", " In dirges for their queen;", "", "While in the moment of their weary pause,", "To cheer thy bankrupt pomp, the willing lark", " Starts from his shielding clod,", " Snatching sweet scraps of song.", "", "Thy life is waning now, and silence tries", "To mourn, but meets no sympathy in sounds.", " As stooping low she bends,", " Forming with leaves thy grave;", "", "To sleep inglorious there mid tangled woods,", "Till parch-lipped summer pines in drought away,", " Then from thine ivied trance", " Awake to glories new.", "", "Summer Images", "", "Now swarthy summer, by rude health embrowned,", " Precedence takes of rosy fingered spring;", "And laughing joy, with wild flowers pranked and crowned,", " A wild and giddy thing,", "And health robust, from every care unbound,", " Come on the zephyr's wing,", " And cheer the toiling clown.", "", "Happy as holiday-enjoying face,", " Loud tongued, and \"merry as a marriage bell,\"", "Thy lightsome step sheds joy in every place;", " And where the troubled dwell,", "Thy witching smiles wean them of half their cares;", " And from thy sunny spell,", " They greet joy unawares.", "", "Then with thy sultry locks all loose and rude,", " And mantle laced with gems of garish light,", "Come as of wont; for I would fain intrude,", " And in the world's despite,", "Share the rude mirth that thy own heart beguiles:", " If haply so I might", " Win pleasure from thy smiles,", "", "Me not the noise of brawling pleasure cheers,", " In nightly revels or in city streets;", "But joys which soothe, and not distract the ears,", " That one at leisure meets", "In the green woods, and meadows summer-shorn,", " Or fields, where bee-fly greets", " The ears with mellow horn.", "", "The green-swathed grasshopper, on treble pipe,", " Sings there, and dances, in mad-hearted pranks;", "There bees go courting every flower that's ripe,", " On baulks and sunny banks;", "And droning dragon-fly, on rude bassoon,", " Attempts to give God thanks", " In no discordant tune.", "", "There speckled thrush, by self-delight embued,", " There sings unto himself for joy's amends,", "And drinks the honey dew of solitude.", " There happiness attends", "With inbred joy until the heart oerflow,", " Of which the world's rude friends,", " Nought heeding, nothing know.", "", "There the gay river, laughing as it goes,", " Plashes with easy wave its flaggy sides,", "And to the calm of heart, in calmness shows", " What pleasure there abides,", "To trace its sedgy banks, from trouble free:", " Spots solitude provides", " To muse, and happy be.", "", "There ruminating neath some pleasant bush,", " On sweet silk grass I stretch me at mine ease,", "Where I can pillow on the yielding rush;", " And, acting as I please,", "Drop into pleasant dreams; or musing lie,", " Mark the wind-shaken trees,", " And cloud-betravelled sky.", "", "And think me how some barter joy for care,", " And waste life's summer-health in riot rude,", "Of nature, nor of nature's sweets aware;", " Where passions vain and rude", "By calm reflection, softened are and still;", " And the heart's better mood", " Feels sick of doing ill.", "", "There I can live, and at my leisure seek", " Joys far from cold restraints--not fearing pride--", "Free as the winds, that breathe upon my cheek", " Rude health, so long denied.", "Here poor integrity can sit at ease,", " And list self-satisfied", " The song of honey-bees;", "", "And green lane traverse heedless where it goes", " Nought guessing, till some sudden turn espies", "Rude battered finger post, that stooping shows", " Where the snug mystery lies;", "And then a mossy spire, with ivy crown,", " Clears up the short surprise,", " And shows a peeping town.", "", "I see the wild flowers, in their summer morn", " Of beauty, feeding on joy's luscious hours;", "The gay convolvulus, wreathing round the thorn,", " Agape for honey showers;", "And slender kingcup, burnished with the dew", " Of morning's early hours,", " Like gold yminted new;", "", "And mark by rustic bridge, oer shallow stream,", " Cow-tending boy, to toil unreconciled,", "Absorbed as in some vagrant summer dream;", " Who now, in gestures wild,", "Starts dancing to his shadow on the wall,", " Feeling self-gratified,", " Nor fearing human thrall:", "", "Then thread the sunny valley laced with streams,", " Or forests rude, and the oershadowed brims", "Of simple ponds, where idle shepherd dreams,", " And streaks his listless limbs;", "Or trace hay-scented meadows, smooth and long,", " Where joy's wild impulse swims", " In one continued song.", "", "I love at early morn, from new mown swath,", " To see the startled frog his route pursue;", "To mark while, leaping oer the dripping path,", " His bright sides scatter dew,", "The early lark that, from its bustle flies,", " To hail his matin new;", " And watch him to the skies:", "", "To note on hedgerow baulks, in moisture sprent,", " The jetty snail creep from the mossy thorn,", "With earnest heed, and tremulous intent,", " Frail brother of the morn,", "That from the tiny bents and misted leaves", " Withdraws his timid horn,", " And fearful vision weaves:", "", "Or swallow heed on smoke-tanned chimney top,", " Wont to be first unsealing morning's eye,", "Ere yet the bee hath gleaned one wayward drop", " Of honey on his thigh;", "To see him seek morn's airy couch to sing,", " Until the golden sky", " Bepaint his russet wing:", "", "And sawning boy by tanning corn espy,", " With clapping noise to startle birds away,", "And hear him bawl to every passer by", " To know the hour of day;", "And see the uncradled breeze, refreshed and strong,", " With waking blossoms play,", " And breathe eolian song.", "", "I love the south-west wind, or low or loud,", " And not the less when sudden drops of rain", "Moisten my pallid cheek from ebon cloud,", " Threatening soft showers again,", "That over lands new ploughed and meadow grounds,", " Summer's sweet breath unchain,", " And wake harmonious sounds.", "", "Rich music breathes in summer's every sound;", " And in her harmony of varied greens,", "Woods, meadows, hedge-rows, corn-fields, all around", " Much beauty intervenes,", "Filling with harmony the ear and eye;", " While oer the mingling scenes", " Far spreads the laughing sky.", "", "And wind-enamoured aspin--mark the leaves", " Turn up their silver lining to the sun,", "And list! the brustling noise, that oft deceives,", " And makes the sheep-boy run;", "The sound so mimics fast-approaching showers,", " He thinks the rain begun,", " And hastes to sheltering bowers.", "", "But now the evening curdles dank and grey,", " Changing her watchet hue for sombre weed;", "And moping owls, to close the lids of day,", " On drowsy wing proceed;", "While chickering crickets, tremulous and long,", " Light's farewell inly heed,", " And give it parting song.", "", "The pranking bat its nighty circlet makes;", " The glow-worm burnishes its lamp anew", "Oer meadows dew-besprent; and beetle wakes", " Enquiries ever new,", "Teazing each passing ear with murmurs vain,", " As wanting to pursue", " His homeward path again.", "", "Hark to the melody of distant bells", " That on the wind with pleasing hum rebounds", "By fitful starts, then musically swells", " Oer the dun stilly grounds;", "While on the meadow bridge the pausing boy", " Listens the mellow sounds,", " And hums in vacant joy.", "", "Now homeward-bound, the hedger bundles round", " His evening faggot, and with every stride", "His leathern doublet leaves a rustling sound.", " Till silly sheep beside", "His path start tremulous, and once again", " Look back dissatisfied,", " Then scour the dewy plain.", "", "How sweet the soothing calm that smoothly stills", " Oer the heart's every sense its opiate dews,", "In meek-eyed moods and ever balmy trills!", " That softens and subdues,", "With gentle quiet's bland and sober train,", " Which dreamy eve renews", " In many a mellow strain.", "", "I love to walk the fields, they are to me", " A legacy no evil can destroy;", "They, like a spell, set every rapture free", " That cheered me when a boy.", "Play--pastime--all time's blotting pen concealed,", " Comes like a new-born joy,", " To greet me in the field.", "", "For nature's objects ever harmonize", " With emulous taste, that vulgar deed annoys;", "It loves in quiet moods to sympathize,", " And meet vibrating joys", "Oer nature's pleasant things; nor will it deem", " Pastime the muse employs", " A vain obtrusive theme." ], "linecount": "317" }, { "title": "Autumn", "author": "John Clare", "lines": [ "Autumn comes laden with her ripened load", "Of fruitage and so scatters them abroad", "That each fern-smothered heath and mole-hill waste", "Are black with bramble berries--where in haste", "The chubby urchins from the village hie", "To feast them there, stained with the purple dye;", "While painted woods around my rambles be", "In draperies worthy of eternity.", "Yet will the leaves soon patter on the ground,", "And death's deaf voice awake at every sound:", "One drops--then others--and the last that fell", "Rings for those left behind their passing bell.", "Thus memory every where her tidings brings", "How sad death robs us of life's dearest things." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Autumn", "author": "John Clare", "lines": [ "The thistle-down's flying, though the winds are all still,", "On the green grass now lying, now mounting the hill,", "The spring from the fountain now boils like a pot;", "Through stones past the counting it bubbles red hot.", "", "The ground parched and cracked is like overbaked bread,", "The greensward all wracked is, bents dried up and dead.", "The fallow fields glitter like water indeed,", "And gossamers twitter, flung from weed unto weed.", "", "Hill tops like hot iron glitter bright in the sun,", "And the rivers we're eying burn to gold as they run;", "Burning hot is the ground, liquid gold is the air;", "Whoever looks round sees Eternity there." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "Autumn", "author": "John Clare", "lines": [ "I love the fitful gust that shakes", " The casement all the day,", "And from the glossy elm tree takes", " The faded leaves away,", "Twirling them by the window pane", "With thousand others down the lane.", "", "I love to see the shaking twig", " Dance till the shut of eve,", "The sparrow on the cottage rig,", " Whose chirp would make believe", "That Spring was just now flirting by", "In Summer's lap with flowers to lie.", "", "I love to see the cottage smoke", " Curl upwards through the trees,", "The pigeons nestled round the cote", " On November days like these;", "The cock upon the dunghill crowing,", "The mill sails on the heath a-going.", "", "The feather from the raven's breast", " Falls on the stubble lea,", "The acorns near the old crow's nest", " Drop pattering down the tree;", "The grunting pigs, that wait for all,", "Scramble and hurry where they fall." ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "Autumn: A Dirge", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "The warm sun is failing, the bleak wind is wailing,", "The bare boughs are sighing, the pale flowers are dying,", "And the Year", "On the earth her death-bed, in a shroud of leaves dead,", "Is lying.", "Come, Months, come away,", "From November to May,", "In your saddest array;", "Follow the bier", "Of the dead cold Year,", "And like dim shadows watch by her sepulchre.", "", "The chill rain is falling, the nipped worm is crawling,", "The rivers are swelling, the thunder is knelling", "For the Year;", "The blithe swallows are flown, and the lizards each gone", "To his dwelling;", "Come, Months, come away;", "Put on white, black, and gray;", "Let your light sisters play--", "Ye, follow the bier", "Of the dead cold Year,", "And make her grave green with tear on tear." ], "linecount": "22" } ]