Rondel for September

 "'Tis the last rose of summer, left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions are faded and gone."-   Thomas Moore, The Last Rose of Summer, 1830
 RONDEL for SEPTEMBER by Karle Wilson Baker  (1878-1960)

 You thought it was a falling leaf we heard:

 I knew it was the Summer's gypsy feet,

 A sound so reticent it scarcely stirred

 The ear so still a message to repeat......

 "I go, and lo, I make my going sweet."

 You thought it was a falling leaf we heard;

 I knew it was the Summer's gypsy feet.

 With slender torches for her service meet

 The golden-rod is coming; softer slurred

 Midsummer noises take a note replete

 With hint of change; who told the mocking bird?

 I knew it was the Summer's gypsy feet........

 You thought it was a falling leaf we heard........

 "The summer was very big. Lay thy shadow on the sundials, and on the meadows let the winds go loose. Command the last fruits that they shall be full; give them another two more southerly days, press them on to fulfillment and drive the last sweetness into the heavenly wine." -     Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)

 Born in Arkansas, Karle Wilson Baker, teacher, writer, author, wrote under the pseudonym Charlotte Wilson. She was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for her last collection of poetry....

Rondel for September By Karle Wilson Baker from "1000 Beautiful Things, 1948"