LATER POEMS.

1856-7.

LATER POEMS.

THE LAST WALK IN AUTUMN.

I.

VER the bare woods, whose outstretched hands Plead with the leaden heavens in vain,

I see, beyond the valley lands,

The sea's long level dim with rain. Around me all things, stark and dumb, Seem praying for the snows to come,

And, for the summer bloom and greenness gone, With winter's sunset lights and dazzling morn

atone.

II.

Along the river's summer walk,

The withered tufts of asters nod;

And trembles on its arid stalk,

The hoar plume of the golden-rod.

And on a ground of sombre fir,
And azure-studded juniper,

The silver birch its buds of purple shows,

And scarlet berries tell where bloomed the sweet wild rose!

III.

With mingled sound of horns and bells,
A far-heard clang, the wild geese fly,
Storm-sent, from Arctic moors and fells,
Like a great arrow through the sky,

Two dusky lines converged in one,
Chasing the southward-flying sun;

While the brave snow-bird and the hardy jay
Call to them from the pines, as if to bid them stay.

IV.

I passed this way a year ago:

The wind blew south; the noon of day Was warm as June's; and save that snow Flecked the low mountains far away, And that the vernal-seeming breeze Mocked faded grass and leafless trees, I might have dreamed of summer as I lay, Watching the fallen leaves with the soft wind at play.

V.

Since then, the winter blasts have piled
The white pagodas of the snow

On these rough slopes, and, strong and wild,
Yon river, in its overflow

Of spring-time rain and sun, set free,
Crashed with its ices to the sea;

And over these gray fields, then green and gold, The summer corn has waved, the thunder's organ rolled.

VI.

Rich gift of God! A year of time!
What pomp of rise and shut of day,
What hues wherewith our Northern clime
Makes autumn's dropping woodlands gay,
What airs outblown from ferny dells,

And clover-bloom and sweet-brier smells,

What songs of brooks and birds, what fruits and

flowers,

Green woods and moonlit snows, have in its round been ours!

THE LAST WALK IN AUTUMN.

VII.

1 know not how, in other lands,
The changing seasons come and go;
What splendors fall on Syrian sands,
What purple lights on Alpine snow!
Nor how the pomp of sunrise waits
On Venice at her watery gates;
A dream alone to me is Arno's vale,

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And the Alhambra's halls are but a traveller's tale

VIII.

Yet, on life's current, he who drifts
Is one with him who rows or sails;
And he who wanders widest, lifts
No more of beauty's jealous veils
Than he who from his doorway sees
The miracle of flowers and trees,

Feels the warm Orient in the noonday air,

And from cloud minarets hears the sunset call to

prayer!

IX.

The eye may well be glad, that looks

Where Pharpar's fountains rise and fall;

But he who sees his native brooks

Laugh in the sun, has seen them all.

The marble palaces of Ind

Rise round him in the snow and wind,

From his lone sweet-brier Persian Hafiz smiles, And Rome's cathedral awe is in his woodland aisles.

X.

And thus it is my fancy blends

The near at hand and far and rare
And while the same horizon bends
Above the silver-sprinkled hair,

Which flashed the light of morning skies
On childhood's wonder-lifted eyes,