Rondel for September / Karle Wilson Baker

Rondel for September

You thought it was a falling leaf we heard:
I knew it was the Summer's gypsy feet;
A sound so reticent it scarcely stirred
The ear, so still a message to repeat, —
"I go, and lo, I make my going sweet."
What wonder you should miss so soft a word?
You thought it was a falling leaf we heard:
I knew it was the Summer's gypsy feet.

With slender torches for her service meet
The golden-rod is coming; softer slurred
Midsummer noises take a note replete
With hint of change; who told the mocking-bird?
I knew it was the Summer's gypsy feet —
You thought it was a falling leaf we heard.

~~
Karle Wilson Baker (1878-1960)
from Blue Smoke: A book of verses, 1919

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada and the United States]

Karle Wilson Baker biography