Novelist, poet, and activist Helen Hunt Jackson was born October 15, 1830. She wrote a nonfiction book titled A Century of Dishonor in which she exposed government mistreatment of the Native American peoples. “Jackson sent a copy to every member of Congress with a quote from Benjamin Franklin printed in red on the cover: ‘Look upon your hands: they are stained with the blood of your relations.'” (Wikipedia, Helen Hunt Jackson) She also wrote a novel, Ramona, in which she endeavored to dramatize the plight of Native Americans in the same manner as her friend Harriet Beecher Stowe had done for black slaves in her novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Ms. Jackson’s poetry was much more light-hearted and celebratory than her prose.
© 2012 Robert Engberg, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio
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.
Rejoice in God’s gift of a new October. Count the hours like a miser, and enjoy the bright blue weather in pairs or alone. That’s my plan.
What contrast in writing! I think my favorite line is this one: Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush/ Of woods, for winter waiting;
I really like this line “When loud the bumblebee makes haste” Matched with the image it seems a perfect October match.
This was my mother’s favorite poem, and it’s mine too.
My mother quoted this poem to me when I was a little girl. She loved autumn and was born and later married my father in October. Wonderful memories.
This must have been a popular poem to teach in elementary s because it was often referred to by my mother, born in 1917, and in reading it now, I can understand why it was beloved. It paints a beautiful picture of autumn.