Monday 2 September 2013

A Poem for September

Or a bit of one. Louis MacNiece's Autumn Journal is pretty long, very beautiful and well worth a read as the nights draw in (with the possible addition of red wine and maybe even cinnamon toast if, like me, you find yourself in the mood to go large on the whole Autumn Experience.)



September has come, it is hers 
Whose vitality leaps in the autumn, 
Whose nature prefers 
Trees without leaves and fire in the fire-place.
So give her this month and the next
Though the whole of my year should be hers who has rendered 
already
So many of its days intolerable or perplexed
But so many more so happy; 
Who has left scent on my life and left my walls 
Dancing over and over with her shadow, 
Whose hair is twined in all my waterfalls 
And all of London littered with remembered kisses.


(I'd like to pretend I'm familiar with this poem from dusty university tutorials or because I have dozens of slim, well-thumbed volumes of poetry on my bedside table, but I actually came across this excerpt as a teenager in one of my all time favourite comfort reads, The Shell Seekers. As someone who definitely prefers trees without leaves and a fire in the fireplace it struck enough of a chord to make me seek it out, and to add it to the list of Things I've Learned by Reading Romance.)

Happy Autumn everyone! 

(Honestly, blog posts. Like buses. Not a single one for 5 months and then 2 in the space of a week.) (Nearly.) 

8 comments:

Jane said...

I love autumn and autumn in NYC is especially pretty. I'm ready for some cooler temps after this hot summer.

Ros said...

Haha! I was just about to comment asking if you'd read the Shell Seekers. That's where I learned this poem too.

Unknown said...

Jane, I'd love to go to New York in the fall and kick leaves in Central Park. As I won't be doing it this year could you please do it for me? (With a hot chocolate somewhere afterwards, if possible...)

Ros, all those years of higher education between us (more supplied by you, admittedly) and yet lovely Rosamunde Pilcher still filled the gaps. And I read something recently that described her as 'fiction lite' or similar. Humph.

Kalliope Bell said...

Lovely poem. I've never read the Shell Seekers. Must do so asap. I'm longing for cooler weather. Mississippi in September is still rather hot. Hope your day is lovely!

xx Trenda

Sharon Kendrick said...


And Rosamund Pilcher used to write for Mills & Boon!

Bring on the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!

Love from Sharon (who lives in Winchester, just down the road from where Keats was inspired to write those delicious words!)

Unknown said...

You definitely must read The Shell Seekers Kalliope. It's very gentle and lovely, and so well written. I think you'd love it.
Autumn seemed to be well on its way here, until the weekend when we had a return to flaming summer. Very unsettling!

Sharon, I had no idea that RP used to write for Mills and Boon!! Under what name?!

Sharon Kendrick said...

India, the Mills & Boon pseudonym of Rosamund Pilcher was Jane Fraser!

-blessed b9, Catalyst4Christ said...

What about a poem for eternity?
Where we can RITE forever Upstairs?