When reeds are dead and straw to thatch the marshes,
And feathered pampas-grass rides into the wind
Like Ag?d warriors westward, tragic, thinned
Of half their tribe; an over the flattened rushes,
Stripped of its secret, open, stark and bleak,
Blackens afar the half-forgotten creek, –
Then leans on me the weight of the year, and crushes
My heart. I know that beauty must ail and die,
And will be born again, – but ah, to see
Beauty stiffened, staring up at the sky!
Oh, Autumn! Autumn! – What is the Spring to me?
(Edna St. Vincent Millay)
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Based on Topics: Spring Poems, Secrets Poems, Autumn PoemsBased on Keywords: half-forgotten, blackens, ail, pampas-grass