Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Ode to the End of Fall

Bright berries

Technically, it's still fall in the Northern Hemisphere. (Winter officially commences on December 21.) The other day, I was out walking in my neighborhood for exercise. In the span of an hour and a half, I managed to snap 85 photos. It's a sickness, I know. I need help.

Dried hydrangea through a fence

Today's pictures are just four of those 85 and are my ode to the end of fall. What struck me most was, even in death and decay as we find at the end of the autumnal equinox, there is beauty. To quote John Donne, "No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace/ as I have seen in one autumnal face."

Through bare trees...

Or, as Lisa Lindsey penned in her poem, Bare Trees, "Through bare trees/ I can be winter's innocence,/ unashamed needfulness,/ the thin and reaching limbs/ of a beggar, longing to touch/ but the hem of the sun."

Lingering roses touched by fall

But none sum up autumn quite as well as the Bard himself, William Shakespeare, who wrote in Sonnet 73:

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the deathbed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.



Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 12/08

10 comments:

 gmirage said...

Fall signifies something withering and all that...but your photos say otherwise! Those are so lovely and colorful!! Wootwoot!!!

Virginia said...

Wow! wonderful images and poetry to match. A stunning post today all the way around.
V

Arlene said...

What a wonderful sickness. You bring so much joy to others by showing us the beauty that we walk right by every day.

Janet Kincaid said...

Mirage: Thanks! I am continually amazed at how I view things now that I spend a good part of life looking through a camera.


VJ: Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it!


Arlene: Your words are very kind. Thank you.

marley said...

Nice photos and words :)

Jane Hards Photography said...

All round fabulous. Often it is things around us that are dying which have the most life, which your images capture.

Maya said...

*sigh* Beautiful in every way. Photos and words.

Janet Kincaid said...

Marley: Thank you! What would the world be without Shakespeare?


Babooshka: Thanks! I use to think Spring was my favorite season, but now I think it's Fall...


Maya: Thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed this.

Rob said...

A lovely ode to my favorite season, bravo! Beautiful photos captureing the best time of year.

But I subscribe to the notion that spring begins on December 21. The days thereafter are increasing in daylight. Should that not be the sign of spring?

Janet Kincaid said...

Rob: Glad you liked this. And I'd never thought of Dec. 21 as ushering in Spring, but you're right. I'm going to begin looking at it that way from now on.