Autumn

The Year, an aged holy priest,
In gorgeous vestments clad,
Now celebrates the solemn feast
Of Autumn, sweet and sad.
The Sun, a contrite thurifer
After his garish days,
Through lessening arch, a wavy blur,
His burnish'd censer sways.
The Earth,--an altar all afire
Her hecatombs to claim,
Shoots upward many a golden spire
And crimson tongue of flame.
Like Jethro's shepherd, when he turn'd
In Midian's land to view
The bush that unconsuming burn'd,
I pause--and worship, too.