“Glorious are the woods in their latest gold and crimson,
Yet our full-leaved willows are in the freshest green.
Such a kindly autumn, so mercifully dealing
With the growths of summer, I never yet have seen.”

—  William Cullen Bryant

The Third of November, 1861. Thirty Poems. Appleton, New York. pp. 112-115. (1864)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Glorious are the woods in their latest gold and crimson, Yet our full-leaved willows are in the freshest green. Such …" by William Cullen Bryant?
William Cullen Bryant photo
William Cullen Bryant 41
American romantic poet and journalist 1794–1878

Related quotes

“Something stirs that once had life. It drops
Into the stream, a last act of faith.
Seedballs of sycamore, incautious leaves of willow,
These have outstayed their autumn, teasing death
Only so far, not yet beyond all patience.
Now they let go.”

Donald Davidson (1893–1968) American poet, essayist, critic and author

Aunt Maria and the Gourds

Aleksandr Pushkin photo

“Sad that our finest aspiration
Our freshest dreams and meditations,
In swift succession should decay,
Like Autumn leaves that rot away.”

Aleksandr Pushkin book Eugene Onegin

Что наши лучшие желанья,
Что наши свежие мечтанья
Истлели быстрой чередой,
Как листья осенью гнилой.
Source: Eugene Onegin (1823), Ch. 8, st. 11.

John Donne photo

“No spring, nor summer beauty hath such grace,
As I have seen in one autumnal face.”

John Donne (1572–1631) English poet

No. 9, The Autumnal, line 1
Elegies
Source: The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose

“Autumn teaches us that fruition is also death; that ripeness is a form of decay. The willows, having stood for so long near water, begin to rust. Leaves are verbs that conjugate the seasons.”

Gretel Ehrlich (1946) American writer

Source: The Solace of Open Spaces

John Heywood photo

“All a green willow, willow,
All a green willow is my garland.”

John Heywood (1497–1580) English writer known for plays, poems and a collection of proverbs

The Green Willow; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“The rains tumble down in the sky,
Young swallows have learned how to fly,
The leaves that were green are no longer so green,
And it looks like the summer is over.”

Tom Springfield (1934) English musician, songwriter and record producer

Song Summer Is Over.

Henry Van Dyke photo

“In warlike pomp, with banners flowing,
The regiments of autumn stood:
I saw their gold and scarlet glowing
From every hillside, every wood.”

Henry Van Dyke (1852–1933) American diplomat

I, st. 1.
The Fall of the Leaves (1874)

“p>…[E]ach moment of joy but prompts the more
That madness buried at the base of dreamy souls,
That sadness in the dark citadel of the heart,
And in sorrowful eyes, images of innocence from the past.
All the Past is but an endless string of days,
All the Future is but a series of graves not yet fulfilled…
In the summer sun, fresh leaves begin to change in hue,
Weaving the autumn whose arrival is imminent—as in our lives
The green days follow in fading succession,
Weaving the shroud that covers our souls.”

Chế Lan Viên (1920–1989) Vietnamese writer

"The Graves", as quoted in Understanding Vietnam by Neil Jamieson (University of California Press, 1995), pp. 163–164

John Constable photo

“My observations on clouds and skies are on scraps and bits of paper, and I have never yet put them together so as to form a lecture, which I shall do.... next summer.”

John Constable (1776–1837) English Romantic painter

1836
Quoted in Leslie Parris and Ian Fleming-Williams, Constable, (Tate Gallery Publications, London, 1993), p. 37
1830s

William Allingham photo

“Now Autumn's fire burns slowly along the woods
And day by day the dead leaves fall and melt.”

William Allingham (1824–1889) Irish man of letters and poet

Autumnal Sonnet; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Related topics