WHEN AUTUMN FADES 
When autumn fades, and from the windy hill 
And forest glades beside the quiet rill 
The splendors waste, and all the happy trees 
Are quite defaced of beauty, and the breeze 
Makes deep lament with laughter quite forgot, 
As it were meant for threnody and not 
For merry mood: and when the blackbirds fling 
Their dusky brood across the sky on wing 
Toward fields remote, and wild ducks flying high 
With muffled note make speed across the sky, 
And redbirds blaze through naked loneliness 
Of woodland ways: and full of deep distress 
The moaning trees where beat tumultuous tides 
Of angry seas whose stormy music chides: 
And all the ways are sown with withered leaves 
And all the days are dim with haze, and grieves 
The wintry wind, and the year’s evening shades 
Grow dusk, and blind the storms, when autumn fades. . 
121 
