Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AN AUTUMNAL TONIC, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AN AUTUMNAL TONIC, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: What mystery is it? The morning
Last Line: With the hale harvest-hands of the past.
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Autumn; Indian Summer; Nature; Seasons; Fall


WHAT mystery is it? The morning as rare
As the Indian Summer may bring!
A tang in the frost and a spice in the air
That no city poet can sing!
The crimson and amber and gold of the leaves,
As they loosen and flutter and fall
In the path of the park, as it rustlingly weaves
Its way through the maples and under the eaves
Of the sparrows that chatter and call.

What hint of delight is it tingles me through? --
What vague, indefinable joy?
What yearning for something divine that I knew
When a wayward and wood-roving boy?
Ah-ha! and Oho! but I have it, I say --
Oh, the mystery brightens at last, --
'Tis the longing and zest of the far, far away,
For a bountiful, old-fashioned dinner to-day,
With the hale harvest-hands of the past.





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