In September of 1961, a wonderful teacher( who had also taught my father ) kindled my

[Atticus]

lifelong love of poetry by reading the following poem to my class. Her appreciation of the verse and the expressive voice in which she recited it for some reason touched something deep and vital within the coarse boy I was then and I will die grateful to her for it.

Ma'am, this is for you:

"The golden-rod is yellow;
The corn is turning brown;
The trees in apple orchards
With fruit are bending down.
The gentian’s bluest fringes
Are curling in the sun;
In dusty pods the milkweed
Its hidden silk has spun.
The sedges flaunt their harvest,
In every meadow nook;
And asters by the brook-side
Make asters in the brook.
From dewy lanes at morning
the grapes’ sweet odors rise;
At noon the roads all flutter
With yellow butterflies.
By all these lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer’s best of weather,
And autumn’s best of cheer.
But none of all this beauty
Which floods the earth and air
Is unto me the secret
Which makes September fair.
‘T is a thing which I remember;
To name it thrills me yet:
One day of one September
I never can forget."

---by Helen Hunt Jackson

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Thank you so much, my dear Atticus, for this remembrance and poem! It's wonderful. ♥

[vanlassie]

2. Helen Hunt Jackson wrote a beloved story titled 'Ramona.'

“Helen Hunt Jackson (pen name, H.H.; born Helen Maria Fiske; October 15, 1830 – August 12, 1885) was an American poet and writer who became an activist on behalf of improved treatment of Native Americans by the United States government. She described the adverse effects of government actions in her history A Century of Dishonor (1881). Her novel Ramona (1884) dramatized the federal government's mistreatment of Native Americans in Southern California after the Mexican–American War and attracted considerable attention to her cause. Commercially popular, it was estimated to have been reprinted 300 times and most readers liked its romantic and picturesque qualities rather than its political content.[1][2] The novel was so popular that it attracted many tourists to Southern California who wanted to see places from the book.” Wikipedia

[markie]

3. nice

it is such a pleasure to remember the verse, song, painting, art piece that first kindles our love of such, touches something inside. That is why it is called The Humanities.

for me:
the verse was Emerson's... The Rhodora