Autumn

This, like the similar poem on Winter, is a story-poem that tells how
an Irish poet was detained on a visit through the four seasons by his
foster-son’s praise of them.

Autumn’s good, a cosy season;
Then there’s work for man and woman,
While each day the sunlight dwindles
Speckled fawn through reddening bracken
  Scatter from the herd.

Stags leap up from sandy hollows
Answering the hind’s deep bellow,
Acorns drop in peaceful woodlands,
Corn stands up in golden plenty
  Over the brown world.

Even the spiky thorn-bush growing
By the old deserted fortress
Staggers with its weight of berries,
Hazel nuts thud in the forest
  From the wearied boughs.


Source: O'Connor, Frank (tr); Kings, Lords, & Commons: An Anthology
from the Irish; 1962; London; Macmillan & Co; p.25