The Autumn
~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Go, sit upon the lofty hill,
And turn your eyes around,
Where waving woods and waters wild
Do hymn an autumn sound.
The summer sun is faint on them --
The summer flowers depart --
Sit still -- as all transform'd to stone,
Except your musing heart.
How there you sat in summer-time,
May yet be in your mind;
And how you heard the green woods sing
Beneath the freshening wind.
Though the same wind now blows around,
You would its blast recall;
For every breath that stirs the trees,
Doth cause a leaf to fall.
Oh! like that wind, is all the mirth
That flesh and dust impart:
We cannot bear its visitings,
When change is on the heart.
Gay words and jests may make us smile,
When Sorrow is asleep;
But other things must make us smile,
When Sorrow bids us weep!
The dearest hands that clasp our hands, --
Their presence may be o'er;
The dearest voice that meets our ear,
That tone may come no more!
Youth fades; and then, the joys of youth,
Which once refresh'd our mind,
Shall come -- as, on those sighing woods,
The chilling autumn wind.
Hear not the wind -- view not the woods;
Look out o'er vale and hill-
In spring, the sky encircled them --
The sky is round them still.
Come autumn's scathe -- come winter's cold --
Come change -- and human fate!
Whatever prospect Heaven doth bound,
Can ne'er be desolate.
First days of Autumn in Canberra, the Bush Capital, where open spaces are crossed with dirt tracks and five storey buildings emerge from the long grass.
Windy today with a slight chill in the air at dusk. Back home there are possums on the roof and two grasshoppers have sneaked inside.
We are reading Lemony Snickett and Biggles, and revising the Rainbow Fish and Mr McGee series. Never seem to have enough bookmarks or hours in the day to satisfy our appetite for stories.
It was a late night at Guides and Daddy arrived home from a business trip to Adelaide just as everyone, ten and under, was firmly tucked in bed. It took a while to settle the troops again. We are all dog-tired.
I'm going to crawl to the light switch and get some much-needed shut-eye. I am enjoying rough cotton sheets over sateen ones but still struggle with the European pillows. Love them in display bedrooms, but I just can't seem to get the angle right for reading. The old 'boomerang' nursing pillow was the best. We must review the pillow situation on the weekend. But honestly six pillows on a queen sized bed is way enough whatever the season.
