The Fall of the Leaves + 

In warlike pomp, with banners flowing, + 

The regiments of autumn stood: + 

I saw their gold and scarlet glowing + 

From every hillside, every wood. + 

Above the sea the clouds were keeping + 

Their secret leaguer, gray and still; + 

They sent their misty vanguard creeping + 

With muffled step from hill to hill. + 

All day the sullen armies drifted + 

Athwart the sky with slanting rain; + 

At sunset for a space they lifted, + 

With dusk they settled down again. + 

At dark the winds began to blow + 

With mutterings distant, low; + 

From sea and sky they called their strength + 

Till with an angry, broken roar, + 

Like billows on an unseen shore, + 

Their fury burst at length. + 

I heard through the night + 

The rush and the clamour; + 

The pulse of the fight + 

Like blows of Thor’s hammer; + 

The pattering flight + 

Of the leaves, and the anguished + 

Moan of the forest vanquished. + 

At daybreak came a gusty song: + 

“Shout! the winds are strong. + 

The little people of the leaves are fled. + 

Shout! The Autumn is dead!” + 

The storm is ended! The impartial sun + 

Laughs down upon the battle lost and won, + 

And crowns the triumph of the cloudy host + 

In rolling lines retreating to the coast. + 

But we, fond lovers of the woodland shade, + 

And grateful friends of every fallen leaf, + 

Forget the glories of the cloud-parade, + 

And walk the ruined woods in quiet grief. + 

For ever so our thoughtful hearts repeat + 

On fields of triumph dirges of defeat; + 

And still we turn on gala-days to tread + 

Among the rustling memories of the dead. + 