The Dread Voyage Poems

by William Wilfred Campbell

 

IN AUTUMN

 
SEASON of the languorous gold,
      Season of the hazy drouth;
When the nights are nipt and cold,
      And the birds go calling south,
Over lakes and still lagoons,
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Through the long-tranced afternoons.

Out in frosty, crimsoning woods,
      When the afternoons are sunny,
In sweet open solitudes
      Where the wild bee stores her honey,
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And the bright wood-carpenter
Hammers at some dead old fir.

There the world forgets its woe,
      And the heart releases trouble,
Where the drumming partridge go,
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      Trailing underneath the stubble;
While the golden afternoon
Slopes and slants and sinks too soon.

Where broad rivers, brimmed with rains,
      Wind in sinuous blue for miles
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Through low, grassy meadow plains,
      Where the warm sun sifts and smiles,
And great tented elms throw
Shadows in cool depths below;—

Spirit in blue hazes clad,
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      Maiden of the sunny mouth,
When the airs grow still and sad,
      And the birds are calling south,
And the far-off hills are blue,
Here I love to dream with you;
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Dream the olden days of yore,
      While the wind some haunted tune
Flutes in gold-green leafy core
      Of the long-tranced afternoon;
And my heart grows still and vast
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With long memories of the past.