September 09, 2005

Autumnal State of Mind

The sky was dark when I got up this morning, and there was a definite taste of fall in the air when I went on the balcony to water the plants. Time to do the fall gardening chores!

In honour of this change, I give you the gift of Keats. Bonus points for anyone who can name the rather famous movie in which the first few lines are quoted by the main characters....

Ode to Autumn

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 moss'd 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'erbrimm'd their clammy cells.

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-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twinèd flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-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 barrèd 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.


Enjoy the weekend!

6 comments:

. said...

Hello, Michele sent me! I love that line you've got in your header -- "What happens when you work in the corporate world but want to live creatively?" Some days my corporate job lets me be creative, but not like I'd like to be. Anyway, I don't even have a guess on the movie. The bosom-friend reminds me of a line from Moby Dick. But really, I've got nothing. Nothing!

J Anderson said...

Ugh.. poetry :D. Michele sent me.

J Anderson said...

I've been here be4. Michele sent me, again.

Cin said...

It's quoted in a chick-flick, so you're forgiven, DD.

Lu said...

great post! i love this time of year...and yes...summer is definately beginning to give up the fight!

michele sent me!

Kathryn said...

hard as I might try to hang on the the last strains of summer, fall is indeed in the air and that's not such a bad thing ..... so lng as teh sun keeps shining!