Poetry Sunday: September by Helen Hunt Jackson

American poet Helen Hunt Jackson was a contemporary of Emily Dickinson. She never quite achieved the same fame as Dickinson, but she wrote some lovely and evocative poems. This is one of them. 

Judging by the last line of the poem, this month was special to the poet. I particularly like the line "September days are here, with summer's best of weather, and autumn's best of cheer."  Is there a better description of the year's ninth month? If so, I haven't heard or read it.

September

by Helen Hunt Jackson

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 the 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.
‘T is a thing which I remember;
To name it thrills me yet:
One day of one September
I never can forget.