The South Wind

In the turbulent beauty
Of a gusty autumn day,
Poet in a wood-crowned headland
Sighed his soul away.
Farms the sunny landscape dappled,
Swan-down clouds dappled the farms,
Cattle lowed in hazy distance
Where far oaks outstretched their arms.
Sudden gusts came full of meaning,
All too much to him they said;—
Southwinds have long memories,
Of that be none afraid.
I cannot tell rude listeners
Half the telltale Southwind said,
T’would bring the blushes of yon maples
To a man and to a maid.