| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | I. An Autumnal Day in Carolina | | By William H. Timrod (1792–1838) |
| | | SLEEPS the soft South, nursing its delicate breath | |
| To fan the first buds of the early spring; | |
| And Summer, sighing, mourns his faded wreath, | |
| Its many-colored glories withering | |
| Beneath the kisses of the new-waked North,— | 5 |
| Who yet in storms approaches not, but smiles | |
| On the departing season, and breathes forth | |
| A fragrance as of summer,—till at whiles | |
| All that is sweetest in the varying year | |
| Seems softly blent in one delicious hour; | 10 |
| Waking dim visions of some former sphere | |
| Where sorrows, such as earth owns, had no power | |
| To veil the changeless lustre of the skies, | |
| And mind and matter formed one Paradise. | | | | |
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