Autumn (by John Collie, 1856)

It’s the first day of autumn (2023) here in the southern hemisphere (good riddance to Cyclone Gabrielle, which caused devastation in other parts of the North Island), so here’s a track from Poems & Lyrics (in the English Dialect) (1856):

Lyrics

AGAIN old Autumn murmurs from the hill , His annual toils already are begun ; His angry blast howls down the fertile vale , Gust after gust with melancholy moan .

Ah , what a change ! no flowers bedeck the grove , Nor fill the air with odoriferous sweets ; No warbler pours his melting lay of love , No honey – laden bee the traveller meets . No sporting lambs skip down the mountain’s side , Where heather bells in clusters lately waved ; Nor where the sun , when in his summer pride , When o’er the lake he floods of silver laved . The spreading oak , by smiling summer dress’t In waving garments of a glossy green , Is ‘ reft of all by Autumn’s ruthless blast , Which rides triumphant o’er the arid plain . The naked willow by the silent lake Sighs to the gale , dejected and forlorn ; As when the mother to her griefs awake , When from her breast her early hopes are torn : All seems to tell in language strong That nought is stable on this earthly sphere ; The grave , the gay , the aged , and the young , Stand on a ladder weak and insecure . I’ve seen at evening with intense delight A lovely flower that scarce its form had shown , And ere the morning både farewell to night , Its looks were faded and its beauties flown : Thus flowers must fade , and man , too , must decline , As snows dissolve and swallowed are by earth , And death’s proud fetters will his frame entwine , Nor count his lineage nor his honoured birth . The Spring again will lightly trip the plain , And leave her mantle on the hawthorn boughs ; Her gentle voice will wake the woodland’s train , Her beamy smiles again recall the rose But when will Spring bring gladness to the tomb ? Where lord and beggar on a level lie ; That dreary house of solitude and gloom , Where Discord , Envy , and Ambition die .
by J ohn Collie (1834-1893)