October Smiles

The autumn frost will lie upon the grass

Like bloom on grapes of purple-brown and gold,

The misted early mornings will be cold;

The little puddles will be roofed with glass.

"Wild Peaches"

Elinor Wylie

Chadds Ford Autumn

Dennis Park

But I remember more dearly autumn afternoons in bottoms

that lay intensely silent under old great trees.

-C.S. Lewis

Mother and Daughter Reading

Jesse Wilcox Smith

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers".

-Anne Shirley

October is the treasurer of the year,

And all the months pay bounty to her store;

The fields and orchards still their tribute bear,

And fill her brimming coffers more and more.

But she, with youthful lavishness,

Spends all her wealth in gaudy dress,

And decks herself in garments bold

Of Scarlet, purple, red, and gold.

She heedth not how swift the hours fly,

But smiles and sings her happy life along;

She only sees above a shining sky;

She only hears the breeze in song.

Her garments trail the woodland through,

And gather pearls of early dew

That sparkle till the roguish Sun

Creeps up and steals them every one.

But what cares she that jewels should be lost,

When all of Nature's bounteous wealth is hers?

Though princely fortunes may have been their cost,

No one regret her calm demeanor stirs.

Whole-hearted, happy, careless free,

She lives her life out joyously,

Nor cares when Frost stalks o'er her way

And turns her auburn locks to gray.

"October"

Paul Lawrence Dunbar

Apple Harvest

Daniel F. Gerhartz