Last Week in October / Thomas Hardy

   
Last Week in October

The trees are undressing, and fling in many places —
On the gray road, the roof, the window-sill —
Their radiant robes and ribbons and yellow laces;
A leaf each second so is flung at will,
Here, there, another and another, still and still.

A spider's web has caught one while downcoming,
That stays there dangling when the rest pass on;
Like a suspended criminal hangs he, mumming
In golden garb, while one yet green, high yon,
Trembles, as fearing such a fate for himself anon.

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Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
from Winter Words, 1928

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada and the European Union]

"Last Week in October" read by Ghizela Rowe.

Thomas Hardy biography