The trees cast down their fruitage, and the blithe
And busy squirrel hoards his winter store;
While man enjoys the breeze that sweeps along
The bright blue sky above him, and that bends
Magnificently all the forest’s pride,
Or whispers through the evergreens, and asks,
‘What is there saddening in the autumn leaves?’
In many minds, however, this season is associated with melancholy images, but they are such as bring pleasure, rather than pain. Who that has read the following lines, descriptive of the close of autumn, has not felt their soothing influence?
The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year,
Of wailing winds and naked woods and meadows brown and sear.