October / Rebecca Hey

October

Autumn! a touching monitress art thou!
When, like a widow, thou dost throw aside
Thy idle gauds, thy glance of conscious pride,
And, kerchief'd in dim clouds, dost meekly throw
A faded garland round thy sadden'd brow.
I love to cope thee in thy chasten'd mood,
For earnestly, yet still in tones subdued,
Thou breathest truths befitting me to know:
And all things aid thy sober teaching well;
The mournful music of the falling leaves
Goes to the heart emphatic as a knell;
And, for the reaper's song amid the sheaves,
Yon robin, on the almost leafless spray,
Pours wildly sweet his solitary lay.

~~
Rebecca Hey (1797-1867)

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

Rebecca Hey biography