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| AGAIN September’s golden day, | |
| Serenely still, intensely bright, | |
| Fades on the umbered hills away, | |
| And melts into the coming night. | |
| Again Moshassuck’s silver tide | 5 |
| Reflects each green herb on its side, | |
| Each tasselled wreath and tangling vine | |
| Whose tendrils o’er its margin twine. | |
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| And, standing on its velvet shore, | |
| Where yesternight with thee I stood, | 10 |
| I trace its devious course once more, | |
| Far winding on through vale and wood. | |
| Now glimmering through yon golden mist, | |
| By the last glinting sunbeams kissed, | |
| Now lost where lengthening shadows fall | 15 |
| From hazel-copse and moss-fringed wall. | |
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| Near where yon rocks the stream inurn | |
| The lonely gentian blossoms still, | |
| Still wave the star-flower and the fern | |
| O’er the soft outline of the hill; | 20 |
| While far aloft, where pine-trees throw | |
| Their shade athwart the sunset glow, | |
| Thin vapors cloud the illumined air, | |
| And parting daylight lingers there. | |
| |
| But, ah, no longer thou art near | 25 |
| This varied loveliness to see, | |
| And I, though fondly lingering here, | |
| To-night can only think on thee;— | |
| The flowers thy gentle hand caressed | |
| Still lie unwithered on my breast, | 30 |
| And still thy footsteps print the shore | |
| Where thou and I may rove no more. | |
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| Again I hear the murmuring fall | |
| Of water from some distant dell, | |
| The beetle’s hum, the cricket’s call, | 35 |
| And, far away, that evening bell,— | |
| Again, again those sounds I hear, | |
| But, oh, how desolate and drear | |
| They seem to-night,—how like a knell | |
| The music of that evening bell! | 40 |
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| Again the new moon in the west, | |
| Scarce seen upon yon golden sky, | |
| Hangs o’er the mountain’s purple crest | |
| With one pale planet trembling nigh,— | |
| And beautiful her pearly light | 45 |
| As when we blessed its beams last night, | |
| But thou art on the far blue sea, | |
| And I can only think of thee. | |
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