Poem by Henry Alford

An Evening in Autumn, near Nether Stowey, Somerset

HOW soothing is that sound of far-off wheels
Under the golden sheen of the harvest-moon!
In the shade-checkered road it half reveals
A homeward-wending group, with hearts in tune
To thankful merriment;—father and boy,
And maiden with her gleanings on her head;
And the last wagon’s rumble heard with joy
In the kitchen with the ending-supper spread.
But while I listening stand, the sound hath ceased;
And hark, from many voices lustily
The harvest-home, the prelude to the feast,
In measured bursts is pealing loud and high;
Soon all is still again beneath the bright
Full moon, that guides me home this autumn night.

1. Sacred to the Memory of E. S.
2. Wymeswold, April, 1837
3. Ampton, Suffolk
4. Sunset at Burton Pynsent, Somerset
5. Haddon Hall, Derbyshire, July, 1836

Print

1116 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version