Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.
An Evening in Autumn, near Nether Stowey, Somerset
By Henry Alford (1810–1871)H
Under the golden sheen of the harvest-moon!
In the shade-checkered road it half reveals
A homeward-wending group, with hearts in tune
To thankful merriment;—father and boy,
And maiden with her gleanings on her head;
And the last wagon’s rumble heard with joy
In the kitchen with the ending-supper spread.
But while I listening stand, the sound hath ceased;
And hark, from many voices lustily
The harvest-home, the prelude to the feast,
In measured bursts is pealing loud and high;
Soon all is still again beneath the bright
Full moon, that guides me home this autumn night.