Ere the happy day Dawned on the world, the world was draped in robes Meet for the nuptials. Baths of sunny haze, Steeping the ripened leaves from day to day, And dainty kisses of the frost at night, Joined in the subtile alchemy that wrought Such miracles of change, that myriad trees Which pranked the meads and clothed the forest glooms Bloomed with the tints of Eden. Had the earth Been splashed with blood of grapes from every clime, Tinted from topaz to dim carbuncle, Or orient ruby, it would not have been Drenched with such waste of color. All the hues The rainbow knows, and all that meet the eye In flowers of field and garden, joined to tell Each tree's close-folded secret. Side by side Rose sister maples, some in amber gold, Others incarnadine or tipped with flame; And oaks that for a hundred years had stood, And flouted one another through the storms-- Boasting their might--proclaimed their pique or pride In dun, or dyes of Tyre. The sumac-leaves Blazed with such scarlet that the crimson fruit Which hung among their flames was touched to guise Of dim and dying embers; while the hills That met the sky at the horizon's rim-- Dabbled with rose among the evergreens, Or stretching off in sweeps of clouted crimson--glowed As if the archery of sunset clouds, By squads and fierce battalions, had rained down Its barbed and feathered fire, and left it fast To advertise th' exploit. In such pomp Of autumn glory, by the simplest rites, Kathrina gave her hand to me, and I Pledged truth and life to her. I bore her home Through shocks of maize, revealing half their gold; Past gazing harvesters with creaking wains That brimmed with fruitage--my adored, my wife, Fruition of my hope--the proudest freight That ever passed that way! My troops of friends, Grown strangely warm and strangely numerous With scent of novelty and pleasant cheer, Assisted me to place upon her throne My household queen. Right royally she sat The new-born dignity. Most graciously She spoke and smiled among the silken clouds That, fold on perfumed fold, like frankincense Enveloped her, through half the festal night, With welcome and good wishes. I was proud: For was not I a king where she was queen? And queen she was--though consort in my home, Queen regnant in the realm of womanhood, By right of every charm. Into her place, As mistress of all home economies, She slid without a jar, as if the Fates, By concert of foreordinate design, Had fitted her for it, and it for her, And, having joined them well, were satisfied. Obedient to the orbit of our love, We came and went, revolving round our home In spheral harmony--twin stars made one, And loyal to one law.