THE leaves have not yet gone; then why do ye come, O white flakes falling from a dusky cloud? But yesterday my garden-plot was proud With uncut sheaves of ripe chrysanthemum. Some trees the winds have stripped; but look on some, 'Neath double load of snow and foliage bowed, Unnatural winter fashioning a shroud For Autumn's burial ere its pulse be numb. Yet Nature plays not an inhuman part: In her, our own, vicissitudes we trace. Do we not cling to our accustomed place, Though journeying Death have beckoned us to start? And faded smiles oft linger in the face, While grief's first flakes fall silent on the heart! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ARIZONA POEMS: 4. THE WINDMILLS by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER MAIDENHOOD by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW HE FELL AMONG THIEVES by HENRY JOHN NEWBOLT THE INDIAN SERENADE by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY THE ROSE TREE by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS |