Song of the Day - 14th October

We are well into October and autumn has definitely settled in. The leaves are dropping, the cold winds are blowing, but today here in the North West I can see Mediterranean-blue skies outside my window with white fluffs of cloud sailing high above. Sadly, I don't have the accompanying Mediterranean temperatures; it is definitely heating-on time!

I am sure a lot of us (at least those of us in the UK) remember that Primary School Assembly banger, Autumn Days. Although personally I don't think I have ever seen "jet planes meeting in the air to be refuelled" - I think that line might have been a touch of bunkum!

So, to celebrate autumn, today's Song of the Day is a setting of a poem also entitled "Autumn Days" by American poet Will Carleton. This poem beautifully illustrates the changeable nature of Autumn.

Will Carleton died in 1912 but his influence on American literature was such that in 1919, the Michigan legislature required teachers to teach at least one of his poems to their students, and October 21 was officially named as Will Carleton Day in Michigan. Schools in Michigan named for him include Will Carleton Academy in Hillsdale, and Will Carleton Middle School in Sterling Heights.

Get the music for this song for free - find out how here.

Autumn Days

By Will Carleton

Yellow, mellow, ripened days,

Sheltered in a golden coating;

O'er the dreamy, listless haze,

White and dainty cloudlets floating;

Winking at the blushing trees,

And the sombre, furrowed fallow;

Smiling at the airy ease

Of the southward-flying swallow.

Sweet and smiling are thy ways,

Beauteous, golden, Autumn days!

Shivering, quivering, tearful days,

Fretfully and sadly weeping;

Dreading still, with anxious gaze,

Icy fetters round thee creeping;

O'er the cheerless, withered plain,

Woefully and hoarsely calling;

Pelting hail and drenching rain

On thy scanty vestments falling.

Sad and mournful are thy ways,

Grieving, wailing, Autumn days!