"August" by Helen Hunt Jackson

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend August 5, 2017   August   Helen Hunt Jackson

Silence again. The glorious symphony Hath need of pause and interval of peace. Some subtle signal bids all sweet sounds cease, Save hum of insects' aimless industry. Pathetic summer seeks by blazonry Of color to conceal her swift decrease. Weak subterfuge! Each mocking day doth fleece A blossom, and lay bare her poverty. Poor middle-agèd summer! Vain this show! Whole fields of golden-rod cannot offset One meadow with a single violet; And well the singing thrush and lily know, Spite of all artifice which her regret Can deck in splendid guise, their time to go!              This poem is in the public domain. About This Poem   "August" was published in Sonnets and Lyrics (Roberts Brothers, 1886).   Helen Hunt Jackson was born in 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her collections of poetry include Verses (Fields, Osgood & Co., 1870) and Sonnets and Lyrics (Roberts Brothers, 1886). She died in 1885. Poetry by Jackson   Poems (HardPress Publishing, 2013) "The Evening Star" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow "To the Moon [fragment]" by Percy Bysshe Shelley "She Walks in Beauty" by George Gordon Byron Help Support Poem-a-Day   If you value Poem-a-Day, please consider a monthly donation or one-time gift to help make it possible. Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning. The free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. Thank you! Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038