Read "Red October" by Helen Gray Cone online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
THE QUIET DAYS
Red October, and the slow leaf sailing; / All the maples flaring scarlet splendor, / All the dogwoods glowing crimson glory, / All the oak-leaves bronze, the beech-leaves golden:
Blue, ah blue! the reaches of the river, / Blue the sky above the russet mountain, / Blue the creek among the tawny marshes, / Blue the tart wild-grape beside the hill-road:
At our feet the burnished chestnut shining; / Scent of autumn, and the brown leaves' rustle; / Cloudy clematis among the brambles, / Orange bittersweet along the wayside.
Days too-perfect, priceless for their passing, / Colored with the light of evanescence, / Fragrant with the breath of frailest beauty -- / Days ineffable of red October!