A September Evening on the Banks of the Moshassuck


 * "Now to the sessions of sweet, silent thought,
 * I summon up remembrance of things past."
 * Shakespeare's Sonnets.

Again September's golden day Serenely still, intensely bright, Fades on the umbered hills away And melts into the coming night. Again Moshassuck's silver tide Reflects each green herb on its side, Each tasselled wreath and tangling vine Whose tenders o'er its margin twin.

And standing on its velvet short Where yesternight with thee I stood, I trace its devious course once more Far winding on through vale and wood. Now glimmering through yon golden mist, By the last glinting sunbeams kissed, Now lost where lengthening shadows fall From hazel-copse and moss-fringed wall.

Near where yon rocks the stream inurn The lonely gentian blossoms still, Still wave the star-flower and the fern O'er the soft outline of the hill; While far aloft where pine-trees throw Their shade athwart the sunset glow, Thing vapors cloud the illumined air And parting day-light lingers there.

But ah, no longer thou art near This varied loveliness to see, And I, though fondly lingering here To-night can only think on thee-- The flowers they gently hand caressed Still lie unwithered on my breast, And still thy footsteps print the short Where thou and I may rove no more.

Again I hear the murmuring fall Of water from some distant dell, The beetle's hum, the cricket's call, And, far away, that evening bell-- Again, again those sounds I hear, But oh, how desolate and drear They seem to night--how like a knell The music of that evening bell.

Again the new moon in the west, Scarce seen upon yon golden sky, Hangs o'er the mountain's purple crest With one pale planet trembling night, And beautiful her pearly light As when we blessed its beams last night, But thou art on the far blue see, And I can only think on thee.