Autumn

I. Alone

Leaves from lofty elms on high
In pale air swim shadowy ;
Fall,
Till, level with a weathered wall,
Glow their autumn colours all ;
Faintly rustle, touching earth ;
Where, in mimicry of mirth,
With a crisper rustle dance,
When the viewless winds advance,
Driven leaves, decayed and brown.
Eddying as they are blown.
Dear illusions perish so,
Summer nurslings, ere the snow ;
Loosen from a fading youth.
Leave us barren to the truth.
Nay, they blossom forth again !
Spring from winter, joy from pain.
Again !

How yon leaflet floats, returning
To the tree where leaves are burning !
Or is it a small dark bird
Nestling in the boughs unheard ?
Lo ! a latticed height of planes,
Green athwart blue skyey lanes,
Blue laving continents of cloud.
Violet vapour thunder-browed :
Yellowing foliage is fair.
Gold-green as an evening air.
Thronged upon a deep dove-grey ;
Higher up the halls of day.
Light darkens, yet doth not consume
Boughs waving in a fiery tomb,
In a gash of brazen fire.
Early sunset's ruddy pale.

II. Lovers on the River

Floating on a slender river,
A pale violet flame,
Windless air, a violet flame.
Clear reflections only quiver.
Flickering with margin blurred !
Whisper, bird,
A word !
Through a mossy arch impearled,
Rounded in the water-world,
Love ! behfjld a little boat
With a white sail, stilly float
Far off, even
In Heaven ;
For the river-reach appears
To mount a violet air ;
A spirit's wings in violet air,
Free from human woes and fears,
In our dreams
It seems !
While yon kine upon the marge.
On the meadowy marge,
Greenly-glowing pasture large,
Send their gleam of coloured shadow
Beyond a green bank from the meadow.
Where rushes are.
Afar !
Perished all sweet summer posies ;
Yet a radiant air
Lavishes more fair
Roseflush from windwoven roses
Rich and rare.
Now we float in orchard closes,
Darkly, magically green,
Ne'er an apple seen :
Till the water winds between
Beechen hills,
And leaf-fed rills.
Whose rich furnace chestnut-gold
Dowers the wave with wealth untold ;
Flakes of burning gold
Lying on the vivid grass
Gorgeous, while we softly pass.
Lo ! slim aspens yellow-pale.
Inlaying far mist while we sail :
Whisper, bird,
A word !
Whisper, murmur, never move
From thy pillow, love !
From my bosom, tender dove !
Lying quiet, hand in hand.
We will dream we need not land
Upon the shore.
Where evermore
Love, a rainbow, dear illusion.
Melts into the world's confusion !
We will dream no chance may sever
Two fond hearts upon the river
Of their own felicity !
We will dream Love need not die ;
Only fly,
In the even,
To Heaven!
III. In the Glens

Upon the huge rock-rooted elm we stood,
That hangs and murmurs o'er a shadowy deep,
Where a dim glen lies silently in sleep.
There one tall ash, crowned queen of all the wood,
Rises above a labyrinthine brood,
Verdurous underglooms, adown the steep
Riverward falling : nightdews well and weep
In their rich bowers of odorous solitude.
Boulders block leafy cataracts, that brave
With rebel surge the crag's commanding wall :
Beeches burn brilliant against a grave
Mist-sombred russet foliage, that all
Seems, like a surf, to mount the steep, nor fall;
Climbs the high cliffs, a never-refluent wave.

We swung beneath the rugged antlered form ;
Clambering, plunged into a green profound,
Ash-pale rent vapours gathering around
Those vast elm-arms upwrithen to the storm ;
Till we beheld a cliff's grey bulk enorm.
Crimson beyond the woodland where we wound.
Whose boughs half veiled the grandeur sunset-warm ;
High cliff that doth the tidal Avon bound.
Here, where steep rocks are riven abrupt and gory,
Where leans, weird thyrsus, a thin branchless tree,
Ivied, discrowned, athwart their promontory,
Midmost all rank and fleshy growths that be,
Nightshade, worn tumbled stones, and trunks mist-hoary.
Satyrs and fauns may hold strange revelry !

Then we emerged upon a slumbering tide,
Where sounding fire-ships to the populous port
Draw vessels laden ; there white birds resort.
Whom light discovers, or hill-shadows hide,
WTiile slowly in aerial maze they glide.
Gorgeous Autumn holds her stately court,
A solemn queen, like Tragedy ; gold- wrought,
Her train fills all the glens ; she is Death's bride ;
For soon she shall be robed in a white shroud.
But we, fond friends, we dared to breathe aloud
V'ows of a love undying ; though a cloud
Gathered, passed over, melted in the blue ;
Though withering worlds, like leaves, around us flew ;
And all the abysses yawned upon us two.

All awful Forces of the Universe,
Within, beneath, around us and above.
Dark armoured Phantoms, frowned upon our love,
Breathing cold scorn thereover, for a curse.
Behold ! how blind wild hurricanes disperse
A foam-flake, inland blown from a sea-cove ;
So man's fair hopes inviolable prove.
Cling, hearts, a moment ere the gulfs immerse !
For Self, and Sin, with all that sundereth.
Mad Chance, and Change, faint Absence, and dim Death,
A ghostly army, leagued against Love's breath.
Have sworn to annihilate ; life's shadows close :
But Love, whose blossom fleeteth as it blows,
Rests in the heart of a Divine repose.