{"id":894,"date":"2013-09-29T16:58:11","date_gmt":"2013-09-29T23:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stickpersonpoetry.com\/spp\/?p=894"},"modified":"2022-01-28T10:17:32","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T18:17:32","slug":"0929","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stickpersonpoetry.com\/spp\/2013\/09\/29\/0929\/","title":{"rendered":"0929"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

0929
\nAKA the Fall<\/p>\n

The Autumn<\/strong>
\nBy Elizabeth Barrett Browning<\/p>\n

Go, sit upon the lofty hill,
\nAnd turn your eyes around,
\nWhere waving woods and waters wild
\nDo hymn an autumn sound.
\nThe summer sun is faint on them —
\nThe summer flowers depart —
\nSit still — as all transform’d to stone,
\nExcept your musing heart.<\/p>\n

How there you sat in summer-time,
\nMay yet be in your mind;
\nAnd how you heard the green woods sing
\nBeneath the freshening wind.
\nThough the same wind now blows around,
\nYou would its blast recall;
\nFor every breath that stirs the trees,
\nDoth cause a leaf to fall.<\/p>\n

Oh! like that wind, is all the mirth
\nThat flesh and dust impart:
\nWe cannot bear its visitings,
\nWhen change is on the heart.
\nGay words and jests may make us smile,
\nWhen Sorrow is asleep;
\nBut other things must make us smile,
\nWhen Sorrow bids us weep!<\/p>\n

The dearest hands that clasp our hands, —
\nTheir presence may be o’er;
\nThe dearest voice that meets our ear,
\nThat tone may come no more!
\nYouth fades; and then, the joys of youth,
\nWhich once refresh’d our mind,
\nShall come — as, on those sighing woods,
\nThe chilling autumn wind.<\/p>\n

Hear not the wind — view not the woods;
\nLook out o’er vale and hill-
\nIn spring, the sky encircled them —
\nThe sky is round them still.
\nCome autumn’s scathe — come winter’s cold —
\nCome change — and human fate!
\nWhatever prospect Heaven doth bound,
\nCan ne’er be desolate.<\/p>\n