There is something in the Autumn that is native to my blood--
Touch of manner, hint of mood;
And my heart is like a rhyme,
With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time.
The scarlet of the maples can shake me like a cry
Of bugles going by.
And my lonely spirit thrills
To see the frosty asters like smoke upon the hills.
There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir;
We must rise and follow her,
When from every hill of fame
She calls and calls each vagabond by name.
* * * * *
[Footnote 1: From "Songs from Vagabondia," by Bliss Carman. Used
by the courteous permission of the author and the publishers,
Messrs. Small, Maynard, & Co.]
JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY
AMERICA, 1852-