University of Virginia Library

FALL

Nay, be content—our door that opens wide
On whitened fields this autumn dawn, all furred
With silver imagery, the sudden bird
That soothes the crystal air, the windless tide
Of light across the world from roof to floor—
Thy heart can ask no more.
The fringed horizon of the pines
Is delicate with frore,
And holds our world within its shadow shore,
Our world where beauty fresh with dewy wines
Sits naked at our door.
Thine eyes in mine! The vineyard's dusky bloom,
The garnered grain, are gifts of autumn's mirth;
And now, while softly through the forest gloom
The warm awakening of the good wet earth
Suspires through the dawn, we need not fear
The ceaseless pageantry of death and birth,
The swallow's passing with the changing year.
Our souls could say, “Perfection was and is;
Death comes like slumber,”—if to-morrow's sun
Should find us fallen with the summer's rose.
This moment stolen from the centuries,
This foretaste of the soul's oblivion
We hold and cherish, and because of this
Are life and death made perfect, and thy woes
Turn lyric through the glory we have won.
The morning flower that drew its petals close
And slept the cold night through is now unfurled
To catch the breathless moment; big and sane
Our autumn day forsakes the gates of rose,
And like a lion shakes its golden mane
And leaps upon the world.