Hallowmas
All hushed of glee,
The last chill bee
Clings wearily
To the dying aster:
The leaves drop faster:
And all around, red as disaster,
The forest crimsons with tree on tree.
A butterfly,
The last to die,
Droops heavily by,
Weighed down with torpor:
The air grows sharper:
And the wind in the trees, like some sad harper,
Sits and sorrows with sigh on sigh.
The far crows call;
The acorns fall;
And over all
The Autumn raises
Dun mists and hazes,
Through which her soul, it seemeth, gazes
On ghosts and dreams in carnival.
The end is near:
The dying Year
Leans low to hear
Her own heart breaking,
And Beauty taking
Her flight, and all her dreams forsaking
Her soul, bowed down 'mid the sad and sere.
Credit
From The Poems of Madison Cawein: Volume V: Poems of Meditation and of Forest and Field (Small, Maynard and Company, 1907) by Madison Julius Cawein. This poem is in the public domain.
Author
Madison Julius Cawein
Madison Julius Cawein, otherwise known as the “Keats of Kentucky,” due to the influence of the English Romantics on his work, was born on March 23, 1865, in Louisville. His mother, Christina, was a spiritualist and author. His father, Dr. William Cawein, was also herbalist who inspired his poet son with a love of nature that later infused Madison’s poetry. Cawein also had four brothers and a sister. Dr.
Date Published
10/16/2017