AND FLOWERS OF POETRY. 203 
SADNESS. 
DEAD LEAVES. 
As winter advances, the trees lose their verdure, after being 
despoiled of their fruits. The “ fall of the leaf” is a pleasing 
period to all who love the study of nature, and seek to derive 
profit therefrom. James Montgomery has sung the falling leaf, 
and the lines contain sentiments so just that we introduce them 
here for the delight of our readers : — 
Were I a trembling leaf 
On yonder stately tree, 
After a season, gay and brief, 
Condemned to fade and flee ; 
I should be loath to fall 
Beside the common way, 
Weltering in mire, and spurned by all, 
Till trodden down to clay. 
Nor would I choose to die 
All on a bed of grass ; 
Where thousands of my kindred lie, 
And idly rot in mass. 
Nor would I like to spread 
My thin and withered face, 
In hortus siccus, pale and dead, 
A mummy of my race. 
No ! on the wings of air 
Might I be left to fly, 
I know not and I heed not where; 
A waif of earth and sky! 
Or flung upon the stream, 
Curled like a fairy-boat ; 
As through the changes of a dream, 
To the world’s end to float. 
