Poems (Cary)/October

For works with similar titles, see October.
OCTOBER.
Not the light of the long-Blue Summer,Nor the flowery huntress, Spring,Nor the chilly and moaning Winter,Doth peace to my bosom bring,Like the hazy and red October,When the woods stand bare and brown,And into the lap of the south land,The flowers are blowing down;When all night long, in the moonlight,The boughs of the roof-tree chafe,And the wind, like a wandering poet,Is singing a mournful waif;And all day through the cloud-armies,The sunbeams like sentinels move—For then in my path first unfoldedThe sweet passion-flower of love.
With bosom as pale as the sea-shell,And soft as the flax unspun,And locks like the nut-brown shadowsIn the light of the sunken sun, Came the maiden whose wonderful beautyEnchanted my soul from pain,And gladdened my heart, that can never,No, never be happy again.Away from life's pain and passion,Away from the cares that blight,She went like a star that softlyGoes out from the tent of night.But oft, when the fields of the AutumnAre warm with the summer beams,We meet in the mystic shadowsThat border the land of dreams.For seeing my wo through the splendorThat hovers about her above,She puts from her forehead the glory,And listens again to my love.