‘November’ by Elizabeth Stoddard
‘The loss of beauty is not always loss!’
Much have I spoken of the faded leaf; Long have I listened to the wailing wind, And watched it ploughing through the heavy clouds; For autumn charms my melancholy mind.
When autumn comes, the poets sing a dirge: The year must perish; all the flowers are dead; The sheaves are gathered; and the mottled quail Runs in the stubble, but the lark has fled!
Still, autumn ushers in the Christmas cheer, The holly-berries and the ivy-tree: They weave a chaplet for the Old Year’s heir; These waiting mourners do not sing for me!
I find sweet peace in depths of autumn woods, Where grow the ragged ferns and roughened moss; The naked, silent trees have taught me this, — The loss of beauty is not always loss!
I have always preferred the ‘naked, silent trees’ to the over-dressed summer version.
Elizabeth Stoddard was an American poet and novelist (1823–1902). She and her husband were stalwarts of the New York literary and artistic scene.
She wrote many words in many forms — short stories, novels, essays, journalism of various genres and children’s stories.
Her most studied work, ‘The Morgesons’, is set in a small seaport town, and is the dramatic story of Cassandra Morgeson’s fight against social and religious norms in a quest for sexual, spiritual, and economic autonomy.
A novel about the Victorian era written by a women is unusual. This novel is a commentary on the oppression of women. It challenges the religious and social norms of that era.
Not surprisingly, this novel was not really recognised until more than a hundred years later.
My own creativity is always refreshed by reading the creative works of others — especially some of the classic poems, knowing they were written in a different world at a different time, with a different mindset.
*This poem is in the public domain. Stuff you need to know about the use of other people’s work.
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