Poetical Works

Autumn

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1 Alas! with swift and silent pace,

Impatient Time rolls on the year;

The seasons change, and Nature's face

Now sweetly smiles, now frowns severe.

2 'Twas Spring, 'twas Summer, all was gay;

Now Autumn bends a cloudy brow;

The flowers of Spring are swept away,

And Summer fruits desert the bough.

3 The verdant leaves that play'd on high,

And wanton'd on the western breeze,

Now trod in dust neglected lie,

As Boreas strips the bending trees.

4 The fields, that waved with golden grain,

As russet heaths are wild and bare;

Not moist with dew, but drench'd in rain,

Nor Health, nor Pleasure wanders there.

5 No more, while through the midnight shade,

Beneath the moon's pale orb I stray,

Soft pleasing woes my heart invade,

As Progne* pours the melting lay.

6 From this capricious clime she soars,

Oh! would some god but wings supply!

To where each morn the Spring restores,

Companion of her flight, I'd fly.

7 Vain wish! me Fate compels to bear

The downward season's iron reign,

Compels to breathe polluted air,

And shiver on a blasted plain.

8 What bliss to life can Autumn yield,

If glooms, and showers, and storms prevail,

And Ceres flies the naked field,

And flowers, and fruits, and Phoebus fail?

9 Oh! what remains, what lingers yet,

To cheer me in the darkening hour?

The grape remains! the friend of wit,

In love and mirth of mighty power.

10 Haste--press the clusters, fill the bowl;

Apollo! shoot thy parting ray:

This gives the sunshine of the soul,

This god of health, and verse, and day.

11 Still, still the jocund strain shall flow,

The pulse with vigorous rapture beat;

My Stella with new charms shall glow,

And every bliss in wine shall meet.

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