Monday, September 14, 2009

SEPTEMBER SONGS

"AUTUMN FLOWERS AND APPLES" by Timothy Easton

(This has got to be my very favorite painting depicting autumn, and I unashamedly use it over and over in my blog!)

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"September: it was the most beautiful of words, he'd always felt, evoking orange flowers, swallows, and regret."

~ Alexander Theroux ~

Last autumn, I was all about writing: I was consumed with setting down the fictional, vintage-style diary called The Autumn Sketch Book of Bess Stanhope, a 1920s school teacher in North Dakota. This year, I seem to be into art: the Victorian - or at least traditional - type paintings of autumn, and the lyrical poetry of September, written by others far more talented than myself.

Therefore, I'm sharing some September songs - words and images of this beautiful time of year.


"A REST AT HARVEST 1865" by William-Adolphe Bourgereau

"Tang of fruitage in the air;
Red boughs bursting everywhere;
Shimmering of seeded grass;
Hooded gentians all a'mass.
Warmth of earth, and cloudless wind
Tearing off the husky rind,
Blowing feathered seeds to fall
By the sun-baked, sheltering wall.
Beech trees in golden haze;
Hardy sumachs all ablaze,
Glowing through the silver birches.
How that pine tree shouts and lurches!
From the sunny door-jamb high,
Swings the shell of a butterfly.
Scrape of insect violins
Through the stubble shrilly dins.
Every blade's a minaret
Where a small muezzin's set,
Loudly calling us to pray
At the miracle of day.
Then the purple-lidded night
Westering comes, her footsteps light
Guided by the radiant boon
Of a sickle-shaped new moon."

~ Amy Lowell~ "Late September"

"THE CIDER MILL" by John George Brown

"The breezes taste
Of apple peel,
The air is full
Of smells to feel -

Ripe fruit, old footballs,
Drying grass,
New books and blackboards
Chalk in class.

The bee, his hive
Well-honey, hums
While Mother cuts
Chrysanthemums.

Like plates washed clean
With suds, the days
Are polished with
A morning haze."

~ John Updike ~ "September"


"AUTUMN LEAVES" by Thomas James Lloyd

"I have come to a still, but not a deep center,
A point outside the glittering current;
My eyes stare at the bottom of a river,
At the irregular stones, iridescent sand grains,
My mind moves in more than one place,
In a country half-land, half-water.
I am renewed by death, thought of my death
The dry scent of a dying garden in September,
The wind fanning the ash of a low fire.
What I love is near at hand,
Always, in earth and air."

~ Theodore Roethke ~ "The Far Field"


"OYSTER RIVER SEPTEMBER" by Jan Blencowe

"There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky, which through the summer is not heard or seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been!"

~ Percy Bysshe Shelley ~


"GATHERING WHEAT" by Thomas Ridgway Knight

"September days have the warmth of summer in their briefer hours, but in their lengthening evenings a prophetic breath of autumn. The cricket chirps in the noontide, making the most of what remains in his brief life. The bumblebee is busy among the clover blossoms of the aftermath, and their shrill and dreamy hum hold the outdoor world above the voices of the song birds, now silent or departed."

~ Rowland E. Robinson ~ "September Days"


"HARVEST" by Arkadi Plastov

"Harvest home, harvest home!
We've plowed, we've sowed
We've reaped, we've mowed
And brought safe home
Every load."

~ Traditional Harvest Home Song ~

"SEPTEMBER IN PROVENCE" by Francoise Persillon

"The golden-rod is yellow;
The corn is turning brown
The trees in apple orchards
With fruit are bending down.
The gentian's bluest fringes
Are curling in the sun;
In dusty pods of milkweed
Its hidden silk has spun.
The sedges flaunt their harvest,
In every meadow nook;
And asters by the brook-side
Make asters in the brook.
From dewy lanes at morning
The grapes' sweet odors rise;
At noon the roads all flutter
With yellow butterflies.
By all these lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer's best of weather,
And autumn's best of cheer.
But none of all this beauty
Which floods the earth and air
Is unto me the secret
Which makes September fair.
'Tis a thing which I remember
To name it thrills me yet:
One day of one September
I never can forget."

~Helen Hunt Jackson ~ "September"

9 comments:

  1. Julie, you always shared the picturisque pics and wonderful poems. i love them all!
    hope you are doing well...
    xoxoxoxo

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  2. Julie, your blog is always beautiful and these paintings just add to that beauty. September must be a favorite of a lot of painters. I especially like the first two and the last one.

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  3. Lovely poetry and a wonderful blog. I have just found you and I'm now following.:)
    Best wishes, Jo.

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  4. Julie, gorgeous paintings and I'm so glad you posted them again since I've only recently found your blog. To my eyes, each is as gorgeous as the next. Was your journal of Bess Stanhope published? Can I find a copy? I'd love to read it. Sounds just like my type of book. Thank you again for the eye candy this fine late summer morning!

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  5. Go raibh maith agat for sharing those beautiful September paintings and poems

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  6. Wow Julie I love the art work and the poems are just the best! Thanks so much for sharing such a beautiful post.

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  7. Lovely words and pictures, I can see why the one at the top is your favourite.

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  8. i LOVE september! and YOU have the most wonderful way of finding all of these lovely paintings. I love them ALL!

    p.s. I am doing great so don't worry and no one knew because i did not want to make everyone worried or get more nervous myself
    hugs!

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