Poem by Joanna Baillie

The Last Leaf

THOU last pale relic from yon widow'd tree,
Hovering awhile in air, as if to leave
Thy native sprig reluctant, how I grieve,
And heave the sigh of kindred sympathy,

That thou art fall'n!—for I too whilom play'd
Upon the topmost bough of youth's gay spring;
Have sported blithe on summer's golden wing;
And now I see my fleeting autumn fade.

Yet, "sear and yellow leaf," though thou and I
Thus far resemble, and this frame, like thee,
In the cold silent ground be doom'd to lie,
Thou never more will climb thy parent tree;

But I, through faith in my Redeemer, trust,
That I shall rise again, ev'n from the dust.

1. The Maid of Llanwellyn
2. Female Picture of a Country Life
3. Lines to a Parrot
4. On Reading Walter Scot’s
5. Hooly and Fairly

Oliver Holmes The Last Leaf ("I saw him once before") 1836

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