What can be said? What can be said when the pericarps of the wayside rose turn crimson, with leaves at the forest-edge? when all of the leaves of the countryside are coarse and their greens are dulled by dust? when the seeds of the meadow-grasses are dried and are bowed and hiss with the nervous winds? when, at the last, comes the goldenrod -- head-dress of Autumn's steed whose gaudy caparison is gemmed with the fruits of things and the last low-trailing fringes of which drag, frayed, in the cold, gray mires of what is dead -- when the shrunken river has broadened the marsh? when the water-snakes bask long in the sun? What can be said? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: YEE BOW by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE BETTER PART by MATTHEW ARNOLD PALINODE; AUTUMN by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL A REQUIEM FOR SOLDIERS LOST IN OCEAN TRANSPORTS by HERMAN MELVILLE STELLA'S BIRTHDAY, 1720 by JONATHAN SWIFT |