Page:Fugitive Poetry 1600-1878.djvu/193

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AUTUMNAL DECAY.
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The clustering berries drop their crimson beadsDescending. On the dark laburnum's sides,Mix pods of lighter green among the leaves,Taper, and springless, hastening to decay:And on the wintry honeysuckle's stalkThe succulent berries hang. The robin sitsUpon a mossy gateway, singing clearA requiem to the glory of the woods.And, when the breeze awakes, a frequent showerOf withered leaves bestrews the weedy paths,Or from the branches of the willow whirl,With rustling sound, upon the turbid stream.
Autumnal Decay.
Thou desolate and dying year!Emblem of transitory man,Whose wearisome and wild career,Like thine, is bounded to a span;It seems but as a little daySince Nature smiled upon thy birth,And spring came forth in fair array,To dance upon the joyous earth.
Sad alteration!—Now how lone,How verdureless is Nature's breast;Where ruin makes his empire known,In autumn's yellow vesture drest:The sprightly bird, whose carol sweetBroke on the breath of early day—The summer flowers she loved to greet—The bird—the flowers—oh, where are they?
Thou desolate and dying year!Yet lovely in thy lifelessness,As beauty stretched upon the bierIn death's clay-cold and dark caress;There's loveliness in thy decay,Which breathes, which lingers round thee still,Like memory's mild and cheering rayBeaming upon the night of ill.
Yet—yet the radiance is not goneWhich sheds a richness o'er the scene,Which smiles upon the golden dawnWhen skies were brilliant and serene—
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