There are two seasonal diversions that can ease the bite of any winter. One is the January thaw. The other is the seed catalogues.
—Hal BorlandThese sudden ends of time must give us pause. We fray into the future, rarely wrought Save in the tapestries of afterthought.
—Richard WilburRing out old shapes of foul disease, Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; Ring out the thousand years of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace!
—Alfred Lord Tennysonput up your little arms and i’ll give them all to you to hold every finger shall have its ring and there won’t be a single place dark or unhappy.
—e.e. cummingsIn the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, long ago.
—Christina RossettiTo the cold December heaven Came the pale moon and the stars, As the yellow sun was sinking Behind the purple bars.
—Charles Dawson ShanlyBut if I had the stars of the darkest night And the diamonds from the deepest ocean I'd forsake them all for your sweet kiss For that's all I'm wishin' to be ownin'.
—Bob DylanGive praise with the skirling of seagulls And the rattle and flap of sails And gongs of buoys rocked by the sea-swell Out in the shipping-lanes beyond the harbor.
—Anne PorterThe morns are meeker than they were, The nuts are getting brown; The berry’s cheek is plumper, The rose is out of town.
—Emily DickinsonThe world is a mist. And then the world is minute and vast and clear. The tide is higher or lower. He couldn’t tell you which.
—Elizabeth BishopNot yesterday I learned to know The love of bare November days Before the coming of the snow, But it were vain to tell her so, And they are better for her praise.
—Robert FrostOn the last of October When dusk is fallen Children join hands And circle round me Singing ghost songs And love to the harvest moon.
—Carl SandburgNobody’s here — Only skunks, that search In the moonlight for a bite to eat. They march on their soles up Main Street: white stripes, moonstruck eyes’ red fire.
—Robert LowellThe leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly changes from the summer cottons into its winter wools.
—Henry BestonDelicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
—George EliotI’ll tell you where the four winds sleep Like four lean hounds the lighthouse keep Wildflower seed in the sand and wind May the four winds blow you home again.
—Robert HunterFor man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad.
—Edwin Way TealeAlthough you hide in the ebb and flow Of the pale tide when the moon has set, The people of coming days will know About the casting out of my net.
—William Butler YeatsThe breezes taste Of apple peel. The air is full Of smells to feel — Ripe fruit, old footballs, Burning brush, New books, erasers, Chalk, and such.
—John UpdikeNow the time has come to leave you One more time Let me kiss you Then close your eyes I’ll be on my way.
—John Denver