Autumn Poems

Sonnet 73 - William Shakespeare

That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou seest the twilight of such day As after sunset fadeth in the west, Which by and by black night doth take away, Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. In me thou seest the glowing of such fire That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, As the death-bed whereon it must expire, Consum'd by that which it was nourished by. This thou perceiv'st which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

 

Autumn - Poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Thou comest, Autumn, heralded by the rain, With banners, by great gales incessant fanned, Brighter than brightest silks of Samarcand, And stately oxen harnessed to thy wain! Thou standest, like imperial Charlemagne, Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand Outstretched with benedictions o'er the land, Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain! Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended So long beneath the heaven's o'er-hanging eaves; Thy steps are by the farmer's prayers attended; Like flames upon an altar shine the sheaves; And, following thee, in thy ovation splendid, Thine almoner, the wind, scatters the golden leaves!

 

Plums - Gillian Clarke

When their time comes they fall without wind, without rain. They seep through the trees' muslin in a slow fermentation. Daily the low sun warms them in a late love that is sweeter than summer. In bed at night we hear heartbeat of fruitfall. The secretive slugs crawl home to the burst honeys, are found in the morning mouth on mouth, inseparable. We spread patchwork counterpanes for a clean catch. Baskets fill, never before such harvest, such a hunters' moon burning the hawthorns, drunk on syrups that are richer by night when spiders pitch tents in the wet grass. This morning the red sun is opening like a rose on our white wall, prints there the fishbone shadow of a fern. The early blackbirds fly guilty from a dawn haul of fallen fruit. We too breakfast on sweetnesses. Soon plum trees will be bone, grown delicate with frost's formalities. Their black angles will tear the snow. 

Fall, Leaves, Fall - Emily Brontë

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away; Lengthen night and shorten day; Every leaf speaks bliss to me Fluttering from the autumn tree. I shall smile when wreaths of snow Blossom where the rose should grow; I shall sing when night's decay Ushers in a drearier day.

 

Ode To Autumn - Poem by John Keats

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-eaves run; To bend with apples the mossed 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-brimmed their clammy cell. Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep, Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers; And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep Steady thy laden head across a brook; Or by a cider-press, with patient look, Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours. Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,--- While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; Then in a wailful choir, the small gnats mourn Among the river sallows, borne aloft Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft, And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

 

Pleasant Sounds - John Clare

The rustling of leaves under the feet in woods and under hedges; The crumpling of cat-ice and snow down wood-rides, narrow lanes and every street causeway; Rustling through a wood or rather rushing, while the wind halloos in the oak-toop like thunder; The rustle of birds' wings startled from their nests or flying unseen into the bushes; The whizzing of larger birds overhead in a wood, such as crows, puddocks, buzzards; The trample of robins and woodlarks on the brown leaves. and the patter of squirrels on the green moss; The fall of an acorn on the ground, the pattering of nuts on the hazel branches as they fall from ripeness; The flirt of the groundlark's wing from the stubbles – how sweet such pictures on dewy mornings, when the dew flashes from its brown feathers.

 

Autumn - John Clare

I love the fitfull gusts that shakes. The casement all the day. And from the mossy elm tree takes. The faded leaf away. Twirling it by the window-pane. With thousand others down the lane I love to see the shaking twig. Dance till the shut of eve. The sparrow on the cottage rig. Whose chirp would make believe. That spring was just now flirting by. In summers lap with flowers to lie. I love to see the cottage smoke. Curl upwards through the naked trees. The pigeons nestled round the coat. On dull November days like these. The cock upon the dung-hill crowing. The mill sails on the heath a-going. The feather from the ravens breast. Falls on the stubble lea. The acorns near the old crows nest. Fall pattering down the tree. The grunting pigs that wait for all. Scramble and hurry where they fall.

Autumn Day - Poem by Rainer Maria Rilke

Lord: it is time. The summer was immense. Lay your shadow on the sundials and let loose the wind in the fields. Bid the last fruits to be full; give them another two more southerly days, press them to ripeness, and chase the last sweetness into the heavy wine. Whoever has no house now will not build one anymore. Whoever is alone now will remain so for a long time, will stay up, read, write long letters, and wander the avenues, up and down, restlessly, while the leaves are blowing.

 

Whim Wood - Katherine Towers

Into the coppery halls of beech and intricate oak to be close to the trees as they whisper together let fall their leaves, and we die for the winter.

 

Japanese Maple - Clive James

Your death, near now, is of an easy sort. So slow a fading out brings no real pain. Breath growing short Is just uncomfortable. You feel the drain Of energy, but thought and sight remain: Enhanced, in fact. When did you ever see So much sweet beauty as when fine rain falls On that small tree And saturates your brick back garden walls, So many Amber Rooms and mirror halls? Ever more lavish as the dusk descends This glistening illuminates the air. It never ends. Whenever the rain comes it will be there, Beyond my time, but now I take my share. My daughter's choice, the maple tree is new. Come autumn and its leaves will turn to flame. What I must do Is live to see that. That will end the game For me, though life continues all the same: Filling the double doors to bathe my eyes, A final flood of colours will live on As my mind dies, Burned by my vision of a world that shone So brightly at the last, and then was gone.

 

Four Seasons - Cecil Frances Alexander

The fields are rich with daffodils, A coat of clover cloaks the hills, And I must dance, and I must sing To see the beauty of the spring.The earth is warm, the sun's ablaze, It is a time of carefree days; And bees abuzz that chance to pass May see me snoozing in the grass. The leaves are yellow, red, and brown, A shower sprinkles softly down; The air is fragrant, crisp, and cool, And once again I'm stuck in school. The birds are gone, the world is white, The winds are wild, they chill and bite; The ground is thick with slush and sleet, And I can barely feel my feet. The last is done, the next is here, The same as it is every year; Spring -- then sunshine ' autumn ' snow, That is how each year must go.

 

Sources: poemhunter.com, panmacmillan.com, dltk-holidays.com