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This leaves us, in the words of Debra Rienstra, the Calvin College colleague of co–editors Gary Schmidt and Susan Felch, with "trees spare and cracked bare / slim fingers in the air." But to British poet Alice Meynell, there is no melancholy in the "hundred exquisite browns" of November. The nourishing decay of the leaves is a natal, not mortal, act. "Life destroyed that autumn, not death."

Autumn is replete with these contradictions, joining birth and death, beginnings and endings, the bounty of harvest and the barrenness of imminent winter. The preface reflects on Longfellow's "paradoxical" two poems entitled "Autumn," which portray the season first as a tired old man, then as a benevolent goddess.

And so we associate autumn with both somber reflection—September 11, Veterans Day and Remembrance Day, and the more spirited Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead)—and with sacred festivity, including the high holy days of Judaism and, of course, Thanksgiving. It is also a time of transition and change, with the start of a new school year, the first zip–the–coat, political elections, and the anticipation of another Christmas around the corner. And so this autumnal anthology is interspersed with passages from the Book of Ruth, who embarked on a life–altering journey to Bethlehem with Naomi at the beginning of the barley harvest.

As in Ruth, the undercurrent of divine providence runs through these accounts of autumn, offering a satisfying answer to the function–centered truth of scientific reductionism. This answer is best articulated by Julian of Norwich, reflecting in the 14th century on the fruit of the harvest. She wonders why a fragile hazelnut endured the season to rest in her hand. "And I was answered in my understanding, 'It lasts now and every shall last because God loves it.' And so everything has its being by the love of God."

Nathan Bierma is an editorial assistant for Books & Culture. He writes the weekly "On Language" column for the Chicago Tribune.

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