AUTUMN

The sad nights are here and the sad mornings,

The air is filled with portents and with warnings,

Clouds that vastly loom and winds that cry,

A mournful prescience

Of bright things going hence;

Red leaves are blown about the widowed sky,

And late disconsolate blooms

Dankly bestrew

The garden walks, as in deserted rooms

The parted guest, in haste to bid adieu,

Trinklets and shreds forgotten left behind,

Torn letters and a ribbon once so brave —

Wreckage none cares to save,

And hearts grow sad to find;

And phantom echoes, as of old foot-falls,

Wander and weary out in the thin air,

And the last cricket calls —

A tiny sorrow, shrilling “Where? ah! where?”