Maple and sumach down this autumn ride -- Look, in what scarlet character they speak! For this their russet and rejoicing week Trees spend a year of sunsets on their pride. You leaves drenched with the lifeblood of the year -- What flamingo dawns have wavered from the east, What eves have crimsoned to their toppling crest To give the fame and transience that you wear! Leaf-low he shall lie soon: but no such blaze Briefly can cheer man's ashen, harsh decline; His fall is short of pride, he bleeds within And paler creeps to the dead end of his days. O light's abandon and the fire-crest sky Speak in me now for all who are to die! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IN PROGRESS by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI FOREIGN LANDS by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON PRAYER IN THE TRENCHES by BRENT DOW ALLINSON LOST HAPPINESS by JOHANNA AMBROSIUS THE MODEST WISH by JOHN BARCLAY (1582-1621) PSALM 1; DONE INTO VERSE 1653 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE THE DEATH OF A FRIEND by LEVI BISHOP |