The autumn air sweeps faint and chill
Across the maple-crested hill;
And on my ear
Falls, tingling clear,
A strange, mysterious, woodland thrill.
From utmost twig, from scarlet crown
Untouched with yet a tinct of brown,
Reluctant, slow,
As loath to go,
The loosened leaves come wavering down;
And not a hectic trembler there,
In its decadence, doomed to share
The fate of all,—
But in its fall
Flings something sob-like on the air.
No drift or dream of passing bell,
Dying afar in twilight dell,
Hath any heard,
Whose chimes have stirred
More yearning pathos of farewell.
A silent shiver as of pain,
Goes quivering through each sapless vein;
And there are moans,
Whose undertones
Are sad as midnight autumn rain.
Ah, if without its dirge-like sigh,
No lightest, clinging leaf can die,—
Let him who saith
Decay and death
Should bring no heart-break, tell me why.
Each graveyard gives the answer: there
I read Resurgam everywhere,
So easy said
Above the dead—
So weak to anodyne despair.
(Margaret Junkin Preston)
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Based on Topics: Death & Dying Poems, Joy & Excitement Poems, Pain Poems, Fate & Destiny Poems, Mystery PoemsBased on Keywords: heart-break, dirge-like, trembler, undertones, tinct, decadence, resurgam, sob-like