BEFORE THE SNOW

Autumn is gone: through the blue woodlands bare

Shatters the rainy wind. A myriad leaves,

Like birds that fly the mournful Northern air.

Flutter away from the old forest's eaves.

Autumn is gone: as yonder silent rill,

Slow eddying o'er thick leaf-heaps lately shed,

My spirit, as I walk, moves awed and still,

By thronging fancies wild and wistful led.

Autumn is gone: alas, how long ago

The grapes were plucked, and garnered was the grain!

How soon death settles on us, and the snow

Wraps with its white alike our graves, our gain!

Yea, autumn's gone! Yet it robs not my mood

Of that which makes moods dear,— some shoot of spring

Still sweet within me; or thoughts of yonder wood

We walked in,— memory's rare environing.

And, though they die, the seasons only take

A ruined substance. All that's best remains

In the essential vision that can make

One light for life, love, death, their joys, their pains.