A favorite poem for October

My mother loved this poem, as did my husband's father.  One would often hear them quoting from it on a beautiful October day.

October's Bright Blue Weather

O suns and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October's bright blue weather;

When loud the bumblebee makes haste,
Belated, thriftless vagrant,
And goldenrod is dying fast,
And lanes with grapes are fragrant;

When gentians roll their fingers tight
To save them for the morning,
And chestnuts fall from satin burrs
Without a sound of warning;

When on the ground red apples lie
In piles like jewels shining,
And redder still on old stone walls
Are leaves of woodbine twining;

When all the lovely wayside things
Their white-winged seeds are sowing,
And in the fields still green and fair,
Late aftermaths are growing;

When springs run low, and on the brooks,
In idle golden freighting,
Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush
Of woods, for winter waiting;

When comrades seek sweet country haunts,
By twos and twos together,
And count like misers, hour by hour,
October's bright blue weather.

O sun and skies and flowers of June,
Count all your boasts together,
Love loveth best of all the year
October's bright blue weather. 

 ~ Helen Hunt Jackson

This poem is such an accurate description of October in New England.  It is simply beautiful.  The other day Mr. T and I went for a short walk on a nearby bike path.  I noticed the brilliant red "leaves of woodbine twining" on the fence that edged the path. And every time I read this poem I think of how my father-in-law shared his memories of his younger days and how he and his comrades "sought sweet country haunts" as the poem describes.  They were true outdoors people who thought nothing of striking off through the woods to hidden places that they knew about.