Poem by Ernest Christopher Dowson

Autumnal

Pale amber sunlight falls across
    The reddening October trees,
    That hardly sway before a breeze
As soft as summer: summer's loss
    Seems little, dear! on days like these.

Let misty autumn be our part!
    The twilight of the year is sweet:
    Where shadow and the darkness meet
Our love, a twilight of the heart
    Eludes a little time's deceit.

Are we not better and at home
    In dreamful Autumn, we who deem
    No harvest joy is worth a dream?
A little while and night shall come,
    A little while, then, let us dream.

Beyond the pearled horizons lie
    Winter and night: awaiting these
    We garner this poor hour of ease,
Until love turn from us and die
    Beneath the drear November trees.

1. Quid Non Supremus, Amantes?
2. Epigram
3. Vain Resolves
4. Villanelle of Marguerite's
5. Soli Cantare Periti Arcades

Katharine Tynan Autumnal ("THE Autumn leaves are dying quietly")

Print

1701 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version