I only discovered this poem a few years ago. Being short and packed with autumnal images, it is perfect for a busy time of year, when you don’t want to let the equinox pass unnoticed, but you are canning tomatoes or drying figs or just taking all the walks you can in the crisp air. If you don’t pay attention to the calendar or the TV, you might miss the day.
For months and years I’ve been trying off and on to confirm that its author is Edwina Hume Fallis. New things show up on Internet searches all the time, and today I have seen enough sites that are confident about attributing it to her that I will accept it. Two months ago I couldn’t find two postings of the poem where her name was even spelled right. Most places it is shared as by “Anonymous.”
In the city of Denver, Colorado, Edwina Hume Fallis is especially famous, for her teaching and writing, a toy shop she owned, and her book When Denver and I Were Young. (I did recently contact the Denver public library to see if they had a copy of the poem below in their collection about her; they did not.) She and her sister made toys to use as props in telling stories to kindergarten students, and she did write over 100 poems; maybe this one was in an anthology that is now out of print. Many women bloggers seem to have memorized it in elementary school.
I wonder if any of my readers in the Southern Hemisphere knows of a similar poem that applies to the opposite seasons down there?
SEPTEMBER
A road like brown ribbon,
A sky that is blue
A forest of green with that sky peeping through.
Asters deep purple,
A grasshopper’s call –
Today, it is Summer
Tomorrow is Fall!
-Edwina Hume Fallis
Gladsome Lights 
What a lovely poem. Perfect to mark the season and this equinox week. I enjoyed hearing about the poet’s background…most interesting.
Wishing you a lovely week ahead,
Brenda
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I, too, memorized this poem when I was in the 3rd grade (around 1970). However, I did not remember the poet’s name. Thank you!
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I also had to memorize this poem back in 3rd grade, 1966. Mrs Fitzgerald made us memorize one poem every month.
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We do not have a dramatic change between any of the seasons in South Africa: one season segues into the next until we realise there is more / less sunshine; the days are hotter / colder; the nights are pleasant / uncomfortably cold. During the current long drought there is not even a show of spring flowers – except along the West Coast, where the blooming of the Namaqualand daisies draw hundreds of tourists annually.
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I looked up Namaqualand daisies. How spectacular that must be!
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En masse, they are a spectacular sight!
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That is just perfect. And so is your timing!
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This sweet little poem is new to me but how perfectly your picture illustrated it. It and the poem should be on Pinterest where I could add it to my autumn board. There is something about all the little September, October, and November lines of fall enchantment that are like water for a thirsty soul at the end of summer. I never get tired of the ones I see over and over this time of year. And asters, every September I think why didn’t we plant some?
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I love that poem. I memorized it along with one of my daughters some years ago!!
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Delightful poem! I think I’ll have the kids learn it this week. 🙂 Our backyard is full of grasshoppers and bachelor buttons. The predicted rain did come, two night in a row! The skies lost their brown shadow and are blue and clean once again. The final days of pleasant outside weather begin!
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I’m so glad that the clean air blew in to your neck of the woods!! That might happen here again this week. I will appreciate Fall much more than I did last year, especially if the air is clean. Once last week our AQI was a glorious 1.
That poem I learned from a teacher in a very small Christian school that is not in operation anymore. Her students learned it without knowing the name of the poet. It’s perfect for children, I think!
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I just Googled the words to this poem as it came to my mind. I was hoping to find the name of the author. When I Googled the words your comments came up. I see the last posting about this was in 2020. I’m happy to see it appears you have found provided the authors name. I learned this poem in Kindergarten, the Fall of 1958. I haven’t memorized many poems in my life, but I had a wonderful Kindergarten teacher who would read poetry to us and would often have us recite them. This one was one of my favorites.
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Thank you, Cathy, for adding your story to the thread. This poem has embedded itself in the hearts of so many people, it’s surprising that there isn’t more information about it and its author online by now. I’m so glad you found what you were looking for here. I really appreciate your taking the time to comment.
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So good. It seems like other people lifted a few lines for their own poems and prose, so maybe that’s why the attribution gets fuzzy. I like the brown ribbon image. What does a grasshopper’s call sound like?
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Check out this video from this search, Grasshopper sound at night https://share.google/eajKAwsZorjuzD3mA
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This poem has had a great impact on my life… I have always loved the autumn and I remembered the poem throughout the years. It actually prompted me to contact my long retired 3rd grade teacher who had taught it to us. After the initial phone call I visited her frequently and brought her homemade cookies… She was then (1979 )95 years old. It all began for me in
1963 when I learned this poem in my 3rd grade class with Miss Barsheid, Fort Stanwix school in Rome New York… The original name of the poem by Edwina Fallis was ‘ The September Song‘ .. it paints such a vivid picture doesn’t it? I taught it to both my children as they were growing up and still send them a copy every fall now that they are adults… she taught us other poems as well that I still remember to this day but this is still my favorite…
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I remember memorizing this September Poem in the fourth grade in 1951. Always loved it and still do!!
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I learned this poem in elementary school. This morning it popped into my mind again and I googled it. Finding it and knowing that others memorized it all over the world is amazing. Thank you !!
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Annie, you are very kind to let me know how all my research ended up being helpful for you. Even though I myself didn’t encounter the poem until later in life, it’s become one of my autumn memories, too.
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Right around the beginning of every September, this poem comes back to me like an incantation and I murmur it to myself, and often start a journal entry with it. It is just a few lines, but so evocative and rich. I have loved this poem for more than 60 years and it touches me that others also remember and love it. I knew nothing about the author, and learning those details adds to my pleasure in the poem.
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Thank you so much for your comment, Miriam. The poem hadn’t come to my mind yet this year when I saw that dozens of people evidently searched for it and found it on my site. That makes me glad that I was able to gather those few details back then.
It is a wonderful thing how that poem has been woven into the hearts of so many, where it continues to warm them year by year.
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