Autumn

by Henry W Longfellow

Autumn 

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! 

The Descent Of The Muses 

Nine sisters, beautiful in form and face,

Came from their convent on the shining heights

Of Pierus, the mountain of delights,

To dwell among the people at its base.

Then seemed the world to change. All time and space,

Splendor of cloudless days and starry nights,

And men and manners, and all sounds and sights,

Had a new meaning, a diviner grace.

Proud were these sisters, but were not too proud

To teach in schools of little country towns

Science and song, and all the arts that please;

So that while housewives span, and farmers ploughed,

Their comely daughters, clad in homespun gowns,

Learned the sweet songs of the Pierides. 

The Burial Of The Poet 

In the old churchyard of his native town,

And in the ancestral tomb beside the wall,

We laid him in the sleep that comes to all,

And left him to his rest and his renown.

The snow was falling, as if Heaven dropped down

White flowers of Paradise to strew his pall;--

The dead around him seemed to wake, and call

His name, as worthy of so white a crown.

And now the moon is shining on the scene,

And the broad sheet of snow is written o'er

With shadows cruciform of leafless trees,

As once the winding-sheet of Saladin

With chapters of the Koran; but, ah! more

Mysterious and triumphant signs are these.