Autumn.—A Sonnet.
Now mellow Autumn reigns ; the garden teems1
With golden fruitage, and with fading flowers ;2
The leaves are sere upon the jasmine bowers ;3
And from the west the sun in glory schemes4
His crimson radiance on the mossy wall,5
Where, netted o’er, and shelter’d from the reach6
Of boy and bird, hang nectarine and peach,7
And plumb, and apricot, delicious all.8
Thrice hath the swallow sought wild Obi’s shore,9
And bath’d his annual wing in Niger’s wave,10
Since last this pebbly walk I travers’d o’er,11
Or rested in the flower-enwreathed cave ;12
A thousand images before me rush,13
And o’er my heart-strings like a torrent gush !14