POETRY BREAK #21: "A VAGABOND SONG" by Bliss Carman, 1896

 

"A WALK IN THE COUNTRY" Norman Rockwell, 1935

Albie's Note:  This little lyric, from the  second book of Canadian poet Bliss Carman's  VAGABONDIA trilogy: More Songs from Vagabondia [1896], was once a widely quoted popular favorite  in the both the USA and the poet's native country.   It's a poem I always think of when October rolls around.... there truly is something in autumn that makes that adventuruous spirit awaken.   Enjoy this classic from the poet Louis Untermeyer celebreated for "the heartiness, the gypsy jollity, the rush of high spirits, that conquered" through his verse.

 

A Vagabond Song

By Bliss Carman

1861-1929

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There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood --
Touch of manner, hint of mood;
And my heart is like a rhyme,
With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time.

The scarlet of the maples can shake me like a cry
Of bugles going by.
And my lonely spirit thrills
To see the frosty asters like a smoke upon the hills.

There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir;
We must rise and follow her,
When from every hill of flame
She calls and calls each vagabond by name.

 

PEACE