XXI.
“Οιη περ φυλλων γενεη, τοιηδε και ανδρων.”
Hom. Il. vi. 146.
“Men fade like leaves” that drop away
Beneath the parent shade,
Others again succeed, but they
Are in oblivion laid.
So spake the sire of Grecian song;—
Through each succeeding age
The words are caught and borne along
By poet, saint, and sage.
“Behold the fig-tree and all the trees, when they now shoot
forth, ye see and know of your ownselves that summer is
now nigh at hand.”
S. Luke xxi. 29.
The parable of Autumn's tale
Before us open lies,
We feel, alas, how fast we fail;—
Yet dim our hope to rise—
And it required a Saviour's voice
To read aright the spring;—
That faith with nature might rejoice
When brush'd by Winter's wing.
