Poems of Madison Cawein Vol. 3 — October

Long hosts of sunlight, and the bright wind blows A tourney-trumpet on the listed hill;

Past is the splendor of the royal rose And duchess daffodil.

Crowned queen of beauty, in the garden’s space, Strong daughter of a bitter race and bold, A ragged beggar with a lovely face, Reigns the sad marigold.

And I, who sought June’s butterfly for days, Now find it--like a coreopsis bloom-- Amber and seal, rain-murdered ’neath the blaze Of this sunflower’s plume.

Here drones the bee; and there, sky-voyaging wings Dare the blue gulfs of heaven: the last song The red-bird flings me as adieu, still rings Upon that pear-tree’s prong.

No angry sunset brims with rubier red The bowl of heaven than the days, indeed, Pour in the blossoms of this salvia-bed Where each leaf seems to bleed.

And where the wood-gnats dance, a little mist, Above the efforts of the weedy stream, The girl, October, tired of the tryst, Dreams a diviner dream.