The meadow is pretty but poisonous in the fall. The cows at pasture there Slowly absorb the venom; The meadow-saffron, lilac, ringed, Flourishes there your eyes are like that flower Violet as its dark ring and as the fall And from your eyes my days seep in slow poison. With a clamor the children pour out of school With their jackets on, playing harmonicas. They gather the meadow-saffrons, which are like mothers there Daughters of their daughters and color of your eyelids Waving as flowers wave in the wild wind The shepherd of the flock sings sweetly While slowly lowing the cows leave once for all This great field ill-flowered by the fall. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A RENUNCIATION by EDWARD DE VERE TO HIS CONSCIENCE by ROBERT HERRICK A PRAISE OF HIS LADY by JOHN HEYWOOD HABEAS CORPUS by HELEN MARIA HUNT FISKE JACKSON TALES OF A WAYSIDE INN: THE FIRST DAY: PAUL REVERE'S RIDE [APRIL 1775] by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW RHOECUS by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL FLOWERS WITHOUT FRUIT by JOHN HENRY NEWMAN |