October's Bright Blue Weather / Helen Hunt Jackson

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 bumblebee makes haste,
    Belated, thriftless vagrant,
And goldenrod is dying fast,
    And lanes with grapes are fragrant;

When gentians roll their fingers 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 sun 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) 
from Poems, 1886 

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

Helen Hunt Jackson biography