Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1854-11-09
For the Green Mountain Freeman
AUTUMN.

This is season of the year full of its impress
sions. The fields studded with golden sheaves,
the orchards hanging with delicious fruit, the
mir balmy and odoriierous, with the varied pen
clIings of tho landscape, green, yellow, orange,
intersperscd with tints Of vergnllion, all are
well calculated to delight the senses, and i'm
press US with ideas Of mature beauty, and the
rare quality of loveliness associated with the
stern and inoxorable.
But it is, perhaps, from her more son,bre
shades and saddor hues, that we derive the deep
or Impressions. The sere leaf falling in the for
est, the naked branches of shorn trees, the sigh
ing of the autumn wind, irresistably impresses
me with feelings Of sadness and melancholy
So emphatic is the language of decay and frailty
expressed, that my mind ia instantly overwhel-
med with its ideas of the nothingness and vani,
ty of earth. gaze and listen, in mutencss and
astonishment, to the sad and awlully impressive
eloquence of nature in her docaying hues. Be-
hold by the blight of ono severe frost, what
numberless trees decorated in their rich and gay
costumes, are stripped Of all their beauty, and
stand leafess and desolate, in the wild solitudes
of their forest homes What countless flowers
blooming upon our hil-sides and decorating
our wales, are cut down by this ruthless invader
upon the retreats of the fair, tho lovely, and
the beautiful! Each step saddens in our au-
tumnal march. From the blight of the flowers
which bloomed by the woodside, vocal with
Birds to the keen frosts of winter, more desolatc
and gloomy is our pathway. The gentle zephyr
changes to the ftful brecze--the breeze to a
chilling and pinchins blast. The sky wears
less serene and smiling face. Clouds become
more ftful and angry in their movoments-tht
storms more wild aud terrifc-and all the eria
elements tempestuous and threatening. The
withered flowers drop away, one by one-ant
the falling leaves gather by the hedge, and in thu
hollows, and the woodlands stand desolatc anC
leaAess. The trilling lay of the summer song
ster is no longer heard from his forest bower
nor the hum Of the bee at the flower cup. Steal
ins upon the sombre hues of advancing antuml
is ths white and shroudy mantle of hoar-frost-
and lastly tho stern investment of winter. w
gaze over the wide landscape, just seen decorate,
in beauty, and nothing but ruin and death d
we behold All the gdcd drapery and polnr
GUS showings of nature, in her guady attire q
spring and Summer, have passed in their moth
iLgncss away.
How emblematical Of human life When
see decrepid years gathering its feeble rram
around the ireside in the chilly season--whcn
mark tho furrowed cheek and wrinklod brow
the frost mid the raven iocis--.,nd tho dim. ia
ding lustre of the expressive eyc--I think Of tn
autumn-I think of the fallen glory and prid
of the lorest--the fading beauty of tho dyin
year.
But autumn hath it3 lessons of wisdom, an
though Of the saddcr and sterner sort, they ar
yet the most valuable and lasting in their chal
acter The vanity Of earth, the frailty and dt
cay SO awfully impressive at this season, war;
man against confding his trust, or placing h
hopes in things 80 dceting and fading. 1t serv
to wean the spirit from earth, and elevate i
affections to things which bear no impress
mutation and sorrow, blight and decay.
WALTER WILDWOOD.