A Bit of Autumn Color. Margaret Junkin Preston (1820-1897). Southern States: Blue Ridge, Va. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. 1876-79. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes. America: Vols. XXV-XXIX

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.

Southern States: Blue Ridge, Va.

A Bit of Autumn Color

Margaret Junkin Preston (1820–1897)


CENTRED upon a sloping crest, I gazed
As one enchanted. The horizon’s ring
Of billowy mountains flushed with sunsetting,
Islanded me about, and held me mazed,
With beauty saturate. Never color blazed	5
On any mortal palette that could fling
Such golden glamour over everything,
As flashed from Autumn’s prism, till all was hazed
With opal, amber, emerald, amethyst,
That shimmered, mingled, dusked to steely blue.	10
Raptured, I mused: “Salvator never drew
A brush so loaded: Turner’s genius missed
Such culmination: yet we count them true
Masters. Behold what God’s one touch can do!”