Poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Autumn Chant

Now the autumn shudders
   In the rose’s root.
Far and wide the ladders
   Lean among the fruit.

Now the autumn clambers
   Up the trellised frame,
And the rose remembers
   The dust from which it came.

Brighter than the blossom
   On the rose’s bough
Sits the wizened, orange,
   Bitter berry now;

Beauty never slumbers;
   All is in her name;
But the rose remembers
   The dust from which it came.

1. My Heart, Being Hungry
2. Nuit Blanche
3. Three Songs from the Lamp and the Bell
4. The Dragonfly
5. Say What You Will, and Scratch My Heart to Find

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