Autumn musings

The Autumn

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.

Nigella "Love-in-a-mist" seed head

Seed head of the teasel

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.

The evocative crimson of the blueberry bushes

Fallen oak leaves

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!

Japanese anemone - an autumn star

Contoneaster throng with berries

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.

A bumper apple harvest awaits

Acorns

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.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning