October’s Son: Thomas Wolfe and the Poetry of Homecoming
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast:
October 3, 1900
On this day, dear readers, we celebrate the birth of a literary luminary whose words have the power to transport us to the very heart of autumn's melancholic beauty.
Thomas Wolfe, that prolific American novelist, came into this world, destined to paint vivid landscapes with his prose and capture the essence of October's bittersweet charm.
Let us, for a moment, lose ourselves in the autumnal reverie Wolfe so masterfully evokes:
All things on earth point home in old October: sailors to sea, travelers to walls and fences, hunters to field and hollow and the long voice of the hounds, the lover to the love he has forsaken.
Oh, how these words stir the soul!
Can you not feel the pull of home, the whisper of nostalgia carried on the crisp October breeze?
Wolfe, in his inimitable style, captures the very essence of this month - a time of return, of reflection, of longing for that which we have left behind.
But let us not dwell solely on melancholy, for Wolfe's pen was equally adept at capturing the vibrant energy of nature in full bloom.
He writes with unbridled enthusiasm:
And the flowers grew in rioting glory...
One can almost see the riotous explosion of color, the last defiant burst of life before winter's approach.
How many of us, tending our autumn gardens, have witnessed this glorious spectacle?
Now, dear gardeners, let us indulge in a moment of culinary whimsy. The esteemed Garden and Gun magazine once shared this delightful quip about our beloved author:
Thomas Wolfe may have said 'You can't go home again,' but I can. Just give me some vinegar and red pepper and I'm there.
How charmingly Southern!
It reminds us that sometimes, the essence of home can be captured in the simplest of flavors, in the tang of vinegar and the heat of red pepper.
Perhaps, as we tend our herb gardens, we might consider planting a pepper or two in honor of Wolfe?
For those who wish to pay homage to this literary giant, the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Garden in Chapel Hill stands as a living tribute.
Here, amidst the blooms and foliage, one can find a poignant sculpture of an angel, bearing words from Wolfe's novel Look Homeward, Angel:
O lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back again
Standing before this monument, surrounded by the beauty of a carefully tended garden, one cannot help but be moved by the intersection of nature and art, of life and literature.
As we go about our autumnal gardening tasks - planting bulbs for spring, tidying away the detritus of summer, perhaps even harvesting the last of our vegetables - let us carry with us these final words from Wolfe:
...bewildered again before the unsearchable riddle - out of death, life, out of the coarse rank earth, a flower.
Is this not the very essence of gardening, dear friends?
The eternal cycle of death and rebirth, the miracle of life springing forth from the earth?
As we plunge our hands into the soil this October, let us remember Thomas Wolfe, who saw in the simple act of a flower blooming the great mysteries of existence.
And so, as the days grow shorter and the nights cooler, let us tend our gardens with renewed vigor, finding in each task a connection to home, to history, and to the timeless beauty of the natural world that so inspired Wolfe's magnificent prose.
