Leaf-Fall in October / John Freeman

Leaf-Fall in October

O falling leaves,
O'er you compassionate tender-fingered eves
Draw a white mist for shroud, O falling leaves!

The poignant thrush
Singeth your fall, while careless footsteps crush
And pass unheeding you, wind-stricken leaves;

And from the sky
Sun, moon, and stars look on indifferently,
As you had never lived, O dying leaves!

A teasing wind
Rattles among the branches hourly-thinned,
Driving a fugitive army of you, wild leaves;

And no more now
Shall you like jewels hang on every bough
In th' bright dew-nourished morn, O pallid leaves

But the wise Earth,
In whom all present death is promised birth,
Takes you — and us who fall like you, O leaves!

~~
John Freeman (1880-1929)
from Twenty Poems, 1909

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

John Freeman biography

John Fowler, Falling Leaves, 2012. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons.