It is October, and the glory of the year
Is in the skies and on the woods extended far and near;
It glows in burnish'd clouds, it flushes all the air;
It lies in hollow vales, in uplands brown and bare.
The tufted groves have lost their bright midsummer green,
And now a softer russet-flush creeps o'er the woodland scene;
O'er distant purple hills there floats a gauzy veil,
A silver vapor hovers o'er the river in the vale.
The orchard trees all glisten with globes of yellow gold,
That bend the bough and strew the earth with opulence untold;
The ripen'd corn-fields shake their pennons thin and white,
And to a feast, the chestnuts, the village school invite.
The gossamer spider-web is strung from tree to tree,
And up the air the thistle-down floats like a ship at sea;
The asters and the dahlias like flames in gardens glow,
And by the roadside wild flowers display a royal show.
Dim seen, the cautious angler glides on from brook to brook,
Now by the open meadow, now in some bushy nook.
And now across the mill-pond, with water-plants o'ergrown,
I see his floating boat, and where his lines are thrown.
And o'er the salty marsh the gun's report I hear,
And see the snipe and curlews stop in their swift career;
While o'er the open bays I see the wild-ducks wheel,
The red-neck and the widgeon, the whistler and the teal.
O glorious days of autumn! with all your pomp of skies,
Your harvests and your fruits, your flowers of matchless dyes
How dear to manly sportsman your ripe, imperial time,
Your sports by "stream and forest," in Nature's royal prime.
