Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Autumn

John Keats (1795-1821)
Autumn has arrived in England, with its crisp days and its changing colours.
Perhaps the best known poem about autumn is from the Regency period, by John Keats. Here's the first verse, to complement the new season.

TO AUTUMN


SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

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