Pages

▼

Saturday, October 14, 2023

First Week in October / Charles Tennyson Turner


    CCIV

The First Week in October

Once on an autumn day as I reposed
Beneath a noonbeam, pallid yet not dull,
The branch above my head dipt itself full
Of that white sunshine momently, and closed;
While, ever and anon, the ashen keys
Dropt down beside the tarnished hollyhocks,
The scarlet cranesbill. and the faded stocks,
Flung from the shuffling leafage by the breeze.
How wistfully I marked the year's decay,
Forecasting all the dreary wind and rain;
'Twas the last week the swallow would remain.
How jealously I watched his circling play!
A few brief hours, and he would dart away,
No more to turn upon himself again.

~~
Charles Tennyson Turner (1808-1879) 
from Collected Sonnets, 1880 

 [Poem is in the public domain worldwide]


                        Image from Studies in Reading, 1919. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
at

2 comments:

  1. Cathleen HarveaOctober 15, 2023 at 4:57 PM

    "dipt' and "dropt" interesting verbiage, 'spose for "dipped" & "dropped", like this. Archaic past tense of dip and drop. Might use this sometime. Swallows are lovely to watched the way they dart, swoop and dive. ABBACDDC EFFEEF, rhyme scheme. 💟💟💟💟💟💟

    ReplyDelete
  2. ZodOctober 16, 2023 at 2:59 PM

    Another read, great find G.D.

    ReplyDelete