The Autumnal Ride

October glittered brazen-hued Beneath the keen autumnal sun; Their leaves the ash and maple strewed Like fiery coals of martyrdom.

The mountains reared their granite cones Through veils of ether opaline; Their bases cinctured round with zones Of giant beech and Delphic pine.

We sucked the air with Ariel’s greed, And chest and nostril ampler grew; Mile after mile rushed by with speed— We felt the freshness of the dew;

While dimpled laughter soon began To loosen up the heart and brain; The blood inebriated ran, Quicksilver-like, through every vein.

We saw Monadnoc cleave the sky, The eagle’s perch a peak sublime; Aerial pasturages high, Where grazed and lowed the mountain kine.

Majestic hill, thy might is sung In strains that with thy cliffs shall last! As long as Night her mantle dun, And Day his beams shall o’er thee cast.

In radiant verse thy summit shines Henceforth to all men evermore; The lulling murmur of thy pines Is audible on every shore.

From morn till noontide on we rode— The day grew summery awhile; The mountain vapors throbbed and glowed, But soon they wore a pensive smile.

The sky, a magazine of hues, Its amethystine glories rained; That richer colors still diffuse, The more the dying sunbeam waned.

O, day forever marked with white, With Eva passed among the hills! A year has flown—its keen delight In memory yet my bosom thrills.