AN AUTUMN WALK.

Adown the track that skirts the shallow stream

I wandered with blank mind; a bypath drew

My aimless steps aside, and, ere I knew,

The forest closed around me like a dream.

The gold-strewn sward, the horizontal gleam

Of the low sun, pouring its splendors through

The far-withdrawing vistas, filled the view,

And everlasting beauty was supreme.

I knew not past or future;‘ twas a mood

Transcending time and taking in the whole.

I was both young and old; my lost childhood,

Years yet unlived, were gathered round one goal;

And death was there familiar. Long I stood,

And in eternity renewed my soul.