AN AUTUMN LANDSCAPE.
Far and wide
Nature is smiling in her loveliness.
Masses of wood, green strips of fields, ravines
Shown by their outlines drawn against the hills,
Chimneys and roofs, trees, single and in groups,
Bright curves of brooks, and vanishing mountain-top
Expand upon my sight, October’s brush
The scene has color’d; not with those broad hues
Mix’d in his later pallet by the frost,
And dash’d upon the picture till the eye
Aches with varied splendor, but in tints
Left by light, scatter’d touches. Overhead
There is a blending of cloud, haze, and sky,
A silvery sheet with spaces of soft blue;
A trembling vail of gauze is stretch’d athwart
The shadowy hill-sides and dark forest-flanks;
A soothing quiet broods upon the air,
And the faint sunshine winks with drowsiness.
Far sounds melt mellow on the ear: the bark—
The bleat—the tinkle—whistle—blast of horn—
The rattle of the wagon-wheel—the low—
The fowler’s shot—the twitter of the bird,
And e’en the hum of converse from the road.
The grass, with its low insect-tones, appears
As murmuring in its sleep. This butterfly
Seems as if loth to stir, so lazily
It flutters by. In fitful starts, and stops,
The locust sings. The grasshopper breaks out
In brief, harsh strains, amid its pausing chirps.
The beetle, glistening in its sable mail,
Slow climbs the clover-tops, and e’en the ant
Darts round less eagerly.
* * * * *
Alfred Street.