Episode 64: Under the October Maples

  Under the October Maples
by James Russell Lowell

What mean these banners spread,
These paths with royal red
So gaily carpeted?
Comes there a prince today?
Such footing were too fine
For feet less argentine
Than Diane’s own or thine,
Queen whom my tides obey.

Surely for thee are meant
These hues so orient
That with a sultan’s tent
Each tree invites the sun;
Our Earth such homage pays,
So decks her dusty ways,
And keeps such holidays,
For one and only one.

 My brain shapes form and face,
Throbs with the rhythmic grace
And cadence of her pace
To all fine instincts true;
Her footsteps, as they pass,
Than moonbeams over grass
Fall lighter,—but, alas,
More insubstantial too!