Farewell Summer by Cecil Cavendish

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 10, 1910

Farewell Summer

By Cecil Cavendish

(The wild aster is known in some localities as “Farewell Summer.”)

In the meadows near the mill, By the wayside, on the hill; In the fields that wander down To the edges of the town, And beside the farmhouse door, “Farewell summer” blooms once more.

Little asters blue and white, Many as the stars at night, Summer’s flowers have blown away; Now you come to make us gay When the fields are growing brown, And the leaves come fluttering down.

How I love to gather you, Purple flowers and white and blue, On the cloudy afternoons When the wind makes pleasant tunes In the orchard grasses dry, Where the ripened apples lie.

Dear to me are days of spring, And the summer makes me sing; Winter has its times of cheer, But the best days of the year Come when, close beside our door, “Farewell summer” blooms once more.

— Cecil Cavendish, in Saint Nicholas.