Selections from the American Poets/Autumn Noon
AUTUMN NOON.
All was so still that I could almost countThe tinklings of the falling leaves. At times,Perchance, a nut was heard to drop, and then—As if it had slipp'd from him as he struckThe meat—a squirrel's short and fretful bark.Anon, a troop of noisy, roving jays,Whisking their gaudy topknots, would surpriseAnd seize upon the top of some tall tree,Shrieking, as if on purpose to enjoyThe consternation of the noontide stillness.Roused by the din, the squirrel from his hole,Like some grave justice bent to keep the peace,Thrust his gray pate, much wondering what it meant.And squatted near me on a stone, there bask'dA fly of larger breed and o'ergrown bulk,In the warm sunshine, vain of his green coatOf variable velvet laced with gold,That, ever and anon, would whisk about,Vexing the stillness with his buzzing din,As human fopling will do with his talk:And o'er the mossy post of an old fence,Lured from its crannies by the warmth, was spiedA swarm of gay motes waltzing to a tuneOf their own humming: quiet sounds, that serveMore deeply to impress us with a senseOf silent loneliness and trackless ways.