Autumn
An empty schoolyard/
As the sun rises/
All the trees shedding/
Their leafy disguises.
Their clever camouflage/
Their foliage red/
Lie upon the ground/
Branches bare in their stead.
The barren front yard/
The concrete expanse/
Wind whistles in the air/
Leaves do dance.
Now a streak of light runs/
Ripping lines as it glows/
Troughs in the ground/
Through which the gold flows.
Tearing deep into/
The grey of the morn/
Yellow shining through/
The blanket of grey; torn.
Featurette
The Autumn
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1833)
Go, sit upon the lofty hill, And turn your eyes around, Where waving woods and waters wild Do hymn an autumn sound. The summer sun is faint on them — The summer flowers depart — Sit still — as all transform’d to stone, Except your musing heart. How there you sat in summer-time, May yet be in your mind; And how you heard the green woods sing Beneath the freshening wind. Though the same wind now blows around, You would its blast recall; For every breath that stirs the trees, Doth cause a leaf to fall. Oh! like that wind, is all the mirth That flesh and dust impart: We cannot bear its visitings, When change is on the heart. Gay words and jests may make us smile, When Sorrow is asleep; But other things must make us smile, When Sorrow bids us weep! The dearest hands that clasp our hands, — Their presence may be o’er; The dearest voice that meets our ear, That tone may come no more! Youth fades; and then, the joys of youth, Which once refresh’d our mind, Shall come — as, on those sighing woods, The chilling autumn wind. Hear not the wind — view not the woods; Look out o’er vale and hill — In spring, the sky encircled them — The sky is round them still. Come autumn’s scathe — come winter’s cold — Come change — and human fate! Whatever prospect Heaven doth bound, Can ne’er be desolate.