October

October's Bright Blue Weather


by Helen Hunt Jackson



O sun and skies and clouds of June

And flowers of June together,

Ye cannot rival for one hour

October's bright blue weather;



When loud the bumblebee makes haste,

Belated, thriftless vagrant,

And goldenrod is dying fast,

And lanes with grapes are fragrant;



When gentians roll their fringes tight,

To save them for the morning,

And chestnuts fall from satin burs

Without a sound of warning;



When on the ground red apples lie

In piles like jewels shining,

And redder still on old stone walls

Are leaves of woodbine twining;



When all the lovely wayside things

Their white-winged seeds are sowing,

And in the fields, still green and fair,

Late aftermaths are growing;



When springs run low, and on the brooks

In idle, golden freighting,

Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush

Of woods, for winter waiting;



When comrades seek sweet country haunt

By twos and twos together,

And count like misers hour by hour

October's bright blue weather.



O sun and skies and flowers of June,

Count all your boasts together,

Love loveth best of all the year

October's bright blue weather.