HARVESTING

Pale sheaves of oats, pocked by untimely rain,

Under October skies,

Teased and forlorn,

Ungathered lie where still the tardy wain

Comes not to seal

The seasons of the corn,

From prime to June, with running barns of grain.

Now time with me is at the middle year,

The register of youth

Is now to sing...

My thoughts are ripe, my moods are in full ear;

That they should fail

Of harvesting,

Uncarried on cold fields, is all my fear.