SCRoots, AUTUMNAL DAY IN CAROLINA

AUTUMNAL DAY IN CAROLINA
by William H. Timrod

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, -
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,
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.

William H. Timrod (1792-1838)
Bookbinder, writer, and editor, Timrod lived in Charleston, South Carolina. He served during the Seminole War as captain of the German Fusileers. His works included "A Vision and Other Poems" published in 1814. During the War of 1812 he published a weekly titled "The Evening Spy." Like much of Southern history and literature which perished due to war, few of Timrods works are known to survive today.

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