Saturday Poetry Corner: A Calendar Of Sonnets: October

 

 

 

 The month of carnival of all the year,

When Nature lets the wild earth go its way...

  

Autumn Leaves
(1911)
Arthur Rackham
(1867-1939)
English Illustrator

And spend whole seasons on a single day.

The spring-time holds her white and purple dear;

October, lavish, flaunts them far and near; 

The summer charily her reds doth lay

Like jewels on her costliest array;

October, scornful, burns them on a bier. 

The winter hoards his pearls of frost in sign

Of kingdom: whiter pearls than winter knew,

Or empress wore, in Egypt's ancient line,

October, feasting, 'neath her dome of blue,

Drinks at a single draught, slow filtered through

Sunshiny air, as in a tingling wine! 

 

"October"
A Calendar of Sonnets
(1891)
Published posthumously
  Helen Hunt Jackson 
(1830-1885)
American writer and poetess
Activist for the improved
treatment of American Indian tribes