Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-10-14
Charm Of Golden Rod

In the night, as the aging but still
splendid moon sailed among the lightly
floating cloudlets, turning their white
simplicity to luxurious violaceous hues
which vanished from one cloud to an
other even as one looked-when the north
wind that had been chilling earth met
and retreated slowly before the returning
southwest-when warnings of rain, in
gray fields of thin vapor, spread over the
eastern sky-when an ominous spirit
seemed to possess the heavens and lay
claim to earth and care naught for man
n was then that one wandered as by a
compelling urge abroad In the fields, to
find there the deepening charm of fall,
always most mysterious in night. For
then II Is that subtler modes of the ply
steal senses are stimulated; and while
Imagination scars the further, the less
that sight apprehends, and leads the mind
beyond the clouds and moon and stars
with rapt freedom---such other effects
are as the intensifying of hearing and
smell, 30 that many a sound or scent un-
recognized by day make themselves noe
turnally vivid; and one never knows how
much touch tells him until he treads field
paths and forest trails by night. Touch
Is indeed the one sense common to all
the other senses. Something IT is that
touches responsive nerves that makes
sight and hearing and smelling and test
ing-all may be resolved into this one
The one brain receives and records all by
the mystery OF touch.
So in the night woods and fields one
comes into the characterizing spell of
autumn. 1t is then found 10 be resolved
into atmosphere The air, laden with all
that nature is doing in preparation for
the winter siesta, bears the epltome of
the year; and the marvel OF scent makos
the revelation thereof. Now It is that
one walks through wood roads and feels
the narrow currents OF warmth stream
out from secret boards OF earth heat:
now the rich doors OF wild grapes over
the bowery tangle of bushes exhilaratcs
the night wanderer; now in the open the
fragrances OF the free flowers Of the FIELDS
In multitudinous wealth Nil tho quick OIL
factory nerves and convey to the brain
the sumptuous glory OF this eliminating
season of life. All the earth is now alive
to feed the soul of men with an indefn-
able sense Of the divinity that 1t in all
its fruits and flowers expresses, and Is
meant to express. II there be a word Of
the season, IL is Astounding. ongolng life,
the glory OF God. world without end,
Amen!
And this is what is so fortunately set
forth in rhythmic beauty by carruth's
profoundly spiritual stanza:
A haze on the far horizon,
An Infinite tender sky,
The ripe, rich tint OF the cornhelds,
And the wild geese sailing high;
And all over upland and lowland
The charm OF the golden-rod-
Some of us call II Autumn,
And others call II God.
The charm of the golden rod! That is
it-yet this noble and splendid flower, so
profusely spent in our part of earth. but
known all over the temperate zone north,
Is but the conspicuous standard oes rer
OF the glory of God in autumn The poet
identtfies them because they are one You
cannot tap single root OF herb or tire,
Of the earth that does not say tho same
thing. If in the night there be that sin
gular pervasion and penetration OF the
spell OF autumn, yet in the sunlight the
magniicence is present in the over power
ing magic OF sight Our eyes receive, as
an inner sight responds. the glory of the
one spirit OF life Rich Is the feast of
color and power TO which We answer; tile
purple and lavender and white asters, tho
snake-heads in the marshes. the suLerb
bronzes and browns of ripenins ferns, and
the intense tones OF sumachs and uoInels
and blackberry vines. all echo the roya
1 supremacy OF the master bloom OF the
fields. 1t is one great tone OF worship OF
Him that hath been, is. and snail be, world
without end, Amenl-Springheld (AIass.
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