Autumn has emptied heaven of its birds And stretched a silence on the loud sea. Gone is the last leaf and the last flower, And all the gauds of summer are undone. Winter cuts off our feet. But we must dance In Spring's conspiracy of circumstance: Swallows sickling air's invisible grass Sketch hieroglyphs that translate at a glance To greenest meaning. The sun, love's looking-glass, Summer, that stokes the furnace of the bee, Honey all nature in one grand romance -- The ambience of consanguinity Hurls its huge myth around the world at me. But now the sports and sunny shows are done. A deadflower clock ticks out a year of seed. The season's losses hide the summer road, And crows talk hoarsely in the frozen wood. Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LILAC: FIRST EMOTIONS OF LOVE by ROBERT BURNS A COMPARISON [ADDRESSED] TO A YOUNG LADY by WILLIAM COWPER THE ADOPTED CHILD by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS THE BUS by MABEL WARREN ARNOLD IN MEMORIAM, NINTH OF AB by BEN AVROM BIRDS OF PASSAGE: PRELUDE by MATHILDE BLIND LINES ON THE VIEW FROM ST. LEONARDS by THOMAS CAMPBELL BALLAD TO THE TUNE OF 'FRANCKLIN'S IS FLED AWAY' by PATRICK CAREY |