The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1849-10-05
From the Boston Transcript.
Thou art bearing hence thy roses,
Sweet Summer, fare thee well :"


Sweet Summer, fare thee well 20
The equnoctial gale, which has been coquetting
with this region of country for week or two past
if 10th to sweep from the forests the luxuriant
verdure in which they have been arrayed has come
at last. II is dashing the rain against window
panes while write, Tapping the awnings, and
shrouding in mist the distant horizon of the harbor
Ii tells us audibly that summer has gone and that
now her banquet hall is TO be swept, her garlands
taken down, and her music hushed
But as the sun will often robe itself in glory Of
crimson and purple clouds at its setting, does the
fair season of the year assume its brightest aspect
as il is departing. The hues of an American au-
tumn Who shall paint them? What poets vo-
cabulary what painters palette shall furnish the
materials Among the word artists who have sue
ceeded best in the task, is Mr. Motley in his
90 Merry Mount" We must content ourselves with
an extract or two from his description
An autumnal day. such as exists only in the
western hemisphere, was shining upon Shawmut,
or, as il must now be designated, Boston. The
stately groves, which adorned without cucumber
ing the picturesque peninsula the scattered trees OF
colossal size which decorated its triple hills, the
gorgeous drapery of an American fall. Unlike the
forests of the older world which, thinly clad in their
beggar weeds of brown and russell, stand shiverng
and signing in the dark and misty atmosphere, the
monarchs of the western soil had arrayed them
selves in robes of Tyrian purple and crimson, scar
let, and gold; and like reckless jewellers in some
plague-struc city, attred in all their carnival
bravery, and beneath vault of crystal radiance,
pilgrims from the older world wandered through
these glowing and glittering woods with admiring
eyes The forests seemed like the subterranean
groves with which the African enchanter charmed
Aladdin, where rods of blossoming rubies, and
boughs overladen with topaz, emerald, sapphire,
and diamonds dazzed the eye with their luxuriant
and intertangled magnihcence, and where every
ootstep fell upon countless heaps of crushed but
| sparkling jewery. Or, the eye rested upon
some HILL covered from base 10 summit with its
diant foliage, where every prismatic color seemed
| flung at random in one confused and gaudy mass
a vagrant fancy might have deemed it natures
mighty palette with all the bent and glazing colors
wherewith she paints the rainbows, myriads OF
which seemed struggling and wreathing themselves
through the forest branches TO float into the cloud
less heavens.
''rhere is no power in language TO represent,
certainly not exaggerate, the brilliancy of an
American forest in autumn The precise reason
for the popularity which the foliage exhibits has
| never been satisfactorily ascertained, but every
species of tree and shrub seems to have tint pecu
1 liar to itself. Upon that memorable morning
chusetts metropolis the woods which decorated the
promontory, covered the chain of hills which
circled 1t, still virgin from the axe, and were
robed in all their natural glory. The oak still
tanned his foliage undininished, but every leaf,
though green in the centre, was edged with scarlet
and spotted with purple; the sumac, bare and leaf
less, lifted its crimson crest; the grape vines hung
around every cliff fstoons of clustering coral; the
row. st56S Iith st v y y s wiz. se S
the hickory looked like golden tree Transatlantic
from some vegetable mine, as it displayed It's Ions
leaves of pale metallic yellow; the birch looked k
flaming torch, fit for the hand of autumn's god
dess, when seeking through the world her ravishec
Prosperine; while, mingled with and contrasting
solemnly with all. the dark pines held high the
plumes Of fadeless green"
This is the nearest to faithful picture Of our au
tumnal woodland scenery that we remember. And
| If any one imagines that IL is exaggerated-that
there is too profuse expenditure ofrch and bril-
| liant colors-let him take drive ten or twelve
miles into the country, and he viii be satisfied
that the picture is not Oycrwrought and that
terly II Is it conveys but an imperfect idea Of the
| original.