BEFORE THE LEAVES FALL by MARGARET ELIZABETH MUNSON SANGSTER

I WONDER if oak and maple,
Willow and elm and all,
Are stirred at heart by the coming
Of the day their leaves must fall.
Do they think of the yellow whirlwind,
Or know of the crimson spray,
That shall be when chill November
Bears all their leaves away?

Perhaps—beside the water
The willow bends, serene
As when her young leaves glistened
In a mist of golden green;
But the brave old oak is flushing
To a wine-red, dark and deep,
And maple and elm are blushing
The blush of a child asleep.

"If die we must," the leaflets
Seem one by one to say;
"We will wear the colors of gladness
Until we pass away.
No eyes shall see us falter;
And, before we lay it down,
We 'll wear, in the sight of all the earth,
The year's most kingly crown."

So, trees of the stately forest,
And trees by the trodden way,
You are kindling into glory
This soft autumnal day.
And we who gaze remember
That more than all they lost,
To hearts and trees together,
@3May@1 come through the ripening frost.

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

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