It's finally fall, and I'm running on pumpkin spice lattes and dying to wear all of my cute sweaters. (Is it going to cool down anytime soon?) Poetry always gets me in the mood for new seasons, so I'm here with the perfect autumn-inspired poems to help you pretend it isn't 95 degrees outside. Get out your decorative gourds and a cup of (iced) apple cider to read the poems on this list because it's October, damn it, even if it doesn't feel like it yet.
Many of these poems are excerpted here, but you can (and should!) read the full poems by clicking the links provided.
"When the Frost is on the Punkin" by James Whitcomb Riley
This poem was suggested to me by Jen Dorsey. First of all, it calls a pumpkin "punkin," which is irresistibly comforting for some reason. The word "punkin" makes me want to cozy up under a fuzzy blanket. Anyway. This poem is chock-full of fall staples with turkeys, bees, fallen leaves and golden colors, and it skips along beautifully in rhyming couplets.
Excerpt:
The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,
And the raspin’ of the tangled leaves, as golden as the morn;
The stubble in the furries—kindo’ lonesome-like, but still
A-preachin’ sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill;
The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;
The hosses in theyr stalls below—the clover over-head!—
O, it sets my hart a-clickin’ like the tickin’ of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock!
PUNKINS of all shapes and sizes
"For the Chipmunk in my Yard" by Robert Gibb
I love chipmunks almost as much as my dogs love to chase them and scare them half to death (and once, to actual death, but I can't get into that because I'll cry). In this poem, the speaker observes a chipmunk and ponders its place in the world. It's a short but lovely read.
Excerpt:
I think he knows I’m alive, having come down
The three steps of the back porch
And given me a good once over. All afternoon
He’s been moving back and forth,
Gathering odd bits of walnut shells and twigs,
While all about him the great fields tumble
To the blades of the thresher.
I can practically smell the leaves.
"III. Nature XXVII, Autumn" by Emily Dickinson
Dickinson is the master of the short-but-packed poem, and this one is no exception. It's a simple meditation on autumn's arrival, but it's full of beautiful images, like the plump "cheek" of a berry. Because the poem is so compact, I've included it in its entirety.
The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry's cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.
The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I'll put a trinket on.
"Nostalgia (The Lake at Night)" by Lloyd Schwartz
This gorgeous poem was suggested to me by Stacey Harwood-Lehman of the Best American Poetry Blog. Schwartz's poem reads like a list of sounds, sights and smells the speaker experiences while by the lake. Every noise and scent is so vivid that the poem transports you to a darkened lakeside, taking in everything the speaker does. The final lines are lovely, but I won't spoil them for you here. You'll have to read the whole thing.
Excerpt:
A cat's eyes caught in a headlight.
No moon.
Connect-the-dot constellations filling the black sky—the ladle of the Big Dipper not quite directly overhead.
The radio tower across the lake, signaling.
Muffled quacking near the shore; a frog belching; crickets, cicadas, katydids, etc.—their relentless sexual messages.
A sudden gust of wind.
"September Tomatoes" by Karina Borowicz
This one was suggested to me by Tommy Bays, and it was a great reminder to revisit this lamentation of the passage of summer into fall. In this poem, the speaker observes her dying tomato plants and muses about an old tradition of her grandmother's. It's a little sad, yet hopeful at the same time.
Excerpt:
The whiskey stink of rot has settled
in the garden, and a burst of fruit flies rises
when I touch the dying tomato plants.
Not tomatoes, but look how pretty!
"Song of the Witches" ("Double, double toil and trouble") by William Shakespeare, from Macbeth
No fall poem roundup is complete without a spooky Halloween poem. The witches in Macbeth are creepy and awesome, and their song is one of the most recognizable witchy rhymes around. It's fun to chant it in a low whisper as you make dinner for your spouse or loved ones...
Excerpt:
Round about the cauldron go:
In the poisoned entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Sweated venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and owlet's wing.
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
And there you have it! What are you favorite fall poems? Share with us in the comments!