On The Hillside Poem by Francis Joseph Sherman

October’s peace hath fallen on everything.
In the far west, above the pine-crowned hill,
With red and purple yet the heavens thrill―
The passing of the sun remembering.
A crow sails by on heavy, flapping wing,

(In some land, surely the young Spring hath her will!)
Below, the little city lieth still;
And on the river’s breast the mist-wreaths cling.
Here, on this slope that yet hath known no plough,
The cattle wander homeward slowly now;


In shapeless clumps the ferns are brown and dead.
Among the fir-trees dusk is swiftly born;
The maples will be desolate by morn.
The last word of the Summer hath been said.