Sampler Verses

How many verses have you copiously transcribed from samplers you have viewed to some day use in a special sampler design?  I go in spurts! Now with digital cameras, many times you can photograph them and have them on file to read later, but something is missing for me when I do that. I don't have them in my book, in my hard-to-read handwriting, to flip through the pages and enjoy at my leisure. They are on chip or a disc or some such electronic device that may or may not come out to be viewed again. I have to say I am old school - I still enjoy the real book, and the hand-written note. But many of you do know that I am very good at email, so I am slowly moving forward. 

We decided to explore verses from samplers about the Autumn season this week in the blog.  We will share a few we have saved or found and hope you will comment with your favorite Autumn verse as well to share with all of us.

I thought there would be more in my notes on this special season, but find that those on friendship, motherhood and creative views dominate my files.  And then there are those morbid verses on death that I do enjoy, the worms crawl in the worms crawl out!  I guess we could bring those into the mix and think ahead to Halloween and the Night of the Dead!  

To me they are so raw and so real as to the life that they lived at that time and the many deaths they had to relate to in times of disease and poor conditions... adjusting to the losses of family and friends and keeping their memories close. Ok, I will wait for Halloween and possibly share a few with you then.  

So I went to some literature sources to see if I could find a few others to round out my list beyond the few I found in my sampler resources.

From 1792 Bolton and Coe

With gilding fire an evening star 

streaks the autumnal skies 

shook from the sphere it darts away

And in an instant dies

October gave a party;

The leaves by hundreds came -

The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,

And leaves of every name.

The Sunshine spread a carpet,

And everything was grand,

Miss Weather led the dancing,

Professor Wind the band.

~George Cooper, "October's Party"

'Friendship

Friends are like Leaves that on the trees do grow, 

in summer prosp'rous state much love they show; 

but art thou in Adversity then they 

lik Leaves from trees in Autumn fall away

Catharine Quince 1812 Read'

Bright yellow, red and orange

The leaves come down in hosts

The trees are Indian Princess

But soon they'll turn to Ghosts...

William Albingham

Autumn by William Morris

Laden Autumn here I stand

Worn of heart, and weak of hand:

Nought but rest seems good to me,

Speak the word that sets me free. 

Becky

As one of those who does take photos of the samplers to save myself the laborious transcription, I do see why Becky feels it's better to have the paper and pen version - looking for my files on my computer can be difficult when they're written files -image files are something else again!  

I have a few poems I've saved, though, that are about this glorious season...

November

by John Updike

The stripped and shapely

Maple grieves

The ghosts of her

Departed leaves.

The ground is hard,

As hard as stone.

The year is old,

The birds are flown.

And yet the world,

In its distress,

Displays a certain

Loveliness---

Nature XXVII, Autumn

by Emily Dickinson

The morns are meeker than they were,

The nuts are getting brown;

The berry's cheek is plumper,

The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf,

The field a scarlet gown.

Lest I should be old-fashioned,

I'll put a trinket on.  

Nothing Gold Can Stay

by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold,

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

Five Little Pumpkins

author unknown

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.

The first one said, "Oh my, it's getting late!"

The second one said, "There are witches in the air."

The third one said, "But we don't care."

The fourth one said, "Let's run, let's run!"

The fifth one said, "Isn't Halloween fun?"

Then Wooooo went the wind

And OUT went the lights.

And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

This last one seems like it would make a wonderful little Halloween stitched design...

Julie