Autumn (From The Dakota Prairie)

 

"To everything there is a season, and a time
 for every matter or purpose under heaven."
(Ecclesiastes 3:1)

The Prairie Is My Garden

(1950)

Oil on Canvas

Harvey Dunn
(1884-1952)
American artist
Image courtesy/South Dakota State University

Ever I see them with my memory's vision

As first my eyes beheld them, years agone,

Clad all in brown, with russet shades and golden,

Stretching away into the far unknown.


Never a break to mar their sweep of grandeur,

From North to South, from East to West, the same,

Save that the East was full of purple shadows,

The West, with setting sun, was all aflame.


Never a sign of human habitation,

To show that man's dominion was begun,

The only marks, the footpaths of the Bison,

Made by herds, before their day was done.

The sky downturned, a brazen bowl above me;

And clanging with the calls of wild gray geese,

Winging their way into the distant South-land,

To 'scape the coming storms and rest in peace.


Ever the winds went whispering o'er the prairie,

Ever the grasses whispered back again;

And then the sun dipped down below the sky-line;

And stars lit just the outlines of the plain.

" From The Dakota Prairie"
Excerpt from a poem by
Laura Ingalls Wilder
(1867-1957)
Prolific writer and author of
"The Little House" books