Sonnet LXIX: Autumn Idleness
This sunlight shames November where he grieves
In dead red leaves, and will not let him shun
The day, though bough with bough be over-run.
But with a blessing every glade receives
High salutation; while from hillock-eaves
The deer gaze calling, dappled white and dun,
As if, being foresters of old, the sun
Had marked them with the shade of forest-leaves.
Here dawn to-day unveiled her magic glass;
Here noon now gives the thirst and takes the dew;
Till eve bring rest when other good things pass.
And here the lost hours the lost hours renew
While I still lead my shadow o'er the grass,
Nor know, for longing, that which I should do.
poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
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Greenly
I bring, with true heart bursting just for you,
Sweet friend these branches, flowers, fruit and leaves,
And hope when white hand humble gift receives,
Beauty’s eyes will bless, not break in two.
Entering, my forehead drenched with dew
Left by dawn winds, I’d learn that love relieves.
Let my fatigue, which at thy feet here grieves,
Enchanted dream these worries two’ll eschew.
May my head on your youthful breast renew
Emotions that each kiss forever leaves,
Yet may it calm find ‘spite the storm that heaves
Now deep within, - to sleep, at rest with you
poem by Paul Verlaine, translated by Jonathan Robin
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Why Don't You Come?
See the swallows quit the eaves
And fall the yellow walnut leaves,
The vines with autumn frost are numb,
Why don't you come, why don't you come?
Oh, come into my arms' embrace
That I may gaze upon your face,
And lay my head in grateful rest
Against your breast, against your breast!
Do you remember when we strayed
The meadows and the secret glade,
I kissed you midst flowering thyme
How many a time, how many a time?
Some women on the earth there are
Whose eyes shine as the evening star,
But be their charm no matter what,
Like you they're not, like you they're not!
For you shine in my soul always
More softly than the starlight blaze,
More splendid than the risen sun,
Beloved one, beloved one!
But it is late in autumn now,
The leaves have fallen from the bough,
The fields are bare, the birds are dumb...
Why don't you come, why don't you come?
poem by Mihai Eminescu
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Finis
Give me a few more hours to pass
With the mellow flower of the elm-bough falling,
And then no more than the lonely grass
And the birds calling.
Give me a few more days to keep
With a little love and a little sorrow,
And then the dawn in the skies of sleep
And a clear to-morrow.
Give me a few more years to fill
With a little work and a little lending,
And then the night on a starry hill
And the road's ending.
poem by Marjorie Lowry Christie Pickthall
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An Eternity
There is no dusk to be,
There is no dawn that was,
Only there's now, and now,
And the wind in the grass.
Days I remember of
Now in my heart, are now;
Days that I dream will bloom
White the peach bough.
Dying shall never be
Now in the windy grass;
Now under shooken leaves
Death never was.
poem by Archibald MacLeish
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Evening.
The light is drawn out of the leaves and grass,
And the sweet flowers grow pale in the gray air,
As if their beauty's essence e'en did pass
With the departing light from all things fair,
As the sap in the trees when summer's fled
Draws back to the earth, leaving the leaves dead.
The sky becomes a cloud, the hills a shade,
As the mysterious darkness fills the sphere,
A monstrous elf whose tentacles are laid
In silence upon all things far and near;
Now the bats flit about the mothy damp
In which the spiders weave their airy camp.
I, too, could fill as 'twere a dreamy bed
Under the green leaves in the darkness now,
And watch the evening planet overhead
Like a dewdrop upon the airy bough
Of heaven tremble — till my soul too grew
Like liquid light in water, shining through.
And I can feel that which the dead inherit —
Peace, and the power to forego the pain
That like a vulture on the human spirit
Draws its fine essence from the fading brain,
Till every sense contracts, and the slow breath
Oozes away in the desire of death.
So from me slips the day's disquietude,
And I am made one with the night, as those
Who pass from thought into a faery mood
On Lethe's wharf, whenas old Charon goes
Into the dusk of that eternal eve
Where all must go when the earth-light they leave.
poem by Robert Crawford
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Imitation
Wandering from the parent bough,
Little, trembling leaf,
Whither goest thou?
'From the beech, where I was born,
By the north wind was I torn.
Him I follow in his flight,
Over mountain, over vale,
From the forest to the plain,
Up the hill, and down again.
With him ever on the way:
More than that, I cannot say.
Where I go, must all things go,
Gentle, simple, high and low:
Leaves of laurel, leaves of rose;
Whither, heaven only knows!'
poem by Count Giacomo Leopardi
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O Stubborn Leaf
Alone, suspended high above the ground,
On barren limb, defying season’s change-
O stubborn leaf! Was I to winter bound,
Was I a hapless slave to winter’s rage,
I’d set aside this ghastly rake,
Climb your bough and give it a shake,
Bring you down to where broken leaves are found.
But in my heart I share your stubborn hold,
Resisting winter’s scourge upon the trees.
I cherish fall, the brilliant days of gold
And red, such colors dancing in the leaves,
Not fading brown from winter's freeze,
Falling, rotting, filling the eaves,
Till every trace is buried in the cold.
Lost in a Wonderland
Lost in a wonderland.
A place I never wish to leave.
Fog covers here in the morn.
The sun shines in the noon.
And the moon never leaves the sky.
When the cries sound off,
the horns quake the air,
the sound of a million warriors pulling out their weapons.
Battle must begin.
It is in the noon that we fight through till night.
When the fog begins to gather
we all flee to the woods,
they up to the mountains,
not to return for a while.
It is deep in the night as we drift off to sleep,
laying our weapons down to rest,
as we curl up in the trees,
dreams engulf our minds for one more moment.
The sun rises and the fog has eaten the ground,
we talk and make merry on their branches,
shaking down apples and berries for our delight.
Basking in the sunlight warmth.
There is a flicker in his eye,
laughter on his face,
sweat on his brow,
and mystery in his heart.
We sit until the fog clears,
and venture off farther into the woods,
a river we find and soak our wounds in,
its coolness found so relieving.
An arrow is taken to a rabbit or bird,
a fire is made to roast them and we sit there,
gutting, skinning and plucking,
recalling memories from the old land.
We never wish to go back.
Wondering through the forests for the rest of our lives,
is perfectly fine with us.
Handling things is our game.
A guitar, a flute, a viola and a violin are taken out,
from the hollow of a wood where we stowed them,
for safe keeping.
And a tune is struck powerfully.
Around our fire we play for a while until time to move on.
The things are put away and we move and explore for a while.
We wander for hours on end, just trudging and talking.
Until the quaint little town we come upon.
Lost in a wonderland.
A place I never wish to leave.
Fog covers here in the morn.
The sun shines in the noon.
And the moon never leaves the sky.
Forever I wish to stay,
Lost in this wonderland,
with my lover,
my best friend,
and our companion.
Never to be alone again,
Never to cry again,
Never to feel left our again,
Lost in a wonderland.
poem by Amber Glistener
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The magic forest
At the Bois de Boulogne lies magic
Magic that cannot be evitable
Magic that lures people into the evergreen forest
In the forest, soft earth is like a comfy bed
Meadows of grass are green sheets for the bed
If you happen to lie down on the bed
The sunlight hugs your body gently like a mother
Your eyes are heavy weights, unable to keep your eyes open
You fall into the sweetest dream as time goes by…
Night walked into the forest as day walked out of the forest
The pale moon is like a glass eye of a witch staring at you
The dark magic falls into the forest
Lusty monsters fill the magic forest
And the magic forest falls asleep…
When Your Lover Has Gone
Einar aaron swan
What good is the scheming, the planning and dreaming
That comes with each new love affair
The dreams that we cherish, so often might perish
And leaves you with castles in air
When youre alone, who cares for starlit skies
When youre alone, the magic moonlight dies
At break of dawn, there is no sunrise
When your lover has gone
What lonely hours, the evening shadows bring
What lonely hours, with memories lingering
Like faded flowers, life cant mean anything
When your lover has gone
song performed by by Billie Holiday
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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George Edmunds' Song
Autumn leaves, autumn leaves, lie strewn around he here;
Autumn leaves, autumn leaves, how sad, how cold, how drear!
How like the hopes of childhood's day,
Thick clust'ring on the bough!
How like those hopes in their decay-
How faded are they now!
Autumn leaves, autumn leaves, lie strewn around me here;
Autumn leaves, autumn leaves, how sad, how cold, how drear!
Wither'd leaves, wither'd leaves, that fly before the gale:
Withered leaves, withered leaves, ye tell a mournful tale,
Of love once true, and friends once kind,
And happy moments fled:
Dispersed by every breath of wind,
Forgotten, changed, or dead!
Autumn leaves, autumn leaves, lie strewn around me here!
Autumn leaves, autumn leaves, how sad, how cold, how drear!
poem by Charles Dickens
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The Fawn
There it was I saw what I shall never forget
And never retrieve.
Monstrous and beautiful to human eyes, hard to
believe,
He lay, yet there he lay,
Asleep on the moss, his head on his polished cleft
small ebony hoves,
The child of the doe, the dappled child of the deer.
Surely his mother had never said, "Lie here
Till I return," so spotty and plain to see
On the green moss lay he.
His eyes had opened; he considered me.
I would have given more than I care to say
To thrifty ears, might I have had him for my friend
One moment only of that forest day:
Might I have had the acceptance, not the love
Of those clear eyes;
Might I have been for him in the bough above
Or the root beneath his forest bed,
A part of the forest, seen without surprise.
Was it alarm, or was it the wind of my fear lest he
depart
That jerked him to his jointy knees,
And sent him crashing off, leaping and stumbling
On his new legs, between the stems of the white
trees?
poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay
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Staight Back
Written by stevie nicks.
What can I say this time
Which card shall I play
The dream is not over,
The dream is just away
And you will fly like some little wing straight back to the sun
The dream was never over
The dream has just begun
The dream has just begun
Fingers find the ivory keys
And a song begins to begin l
Like a wolf on the run
And you will find while in the wind something that you lost
The dream was never over, no
The dream was only lost
(hours and hours of waiting for you,
So strong and so fleeting)
The dream has just begun
(and hours of waiting for you...
In hopes of meeting)
The dream has just begun
(this way)
Well, the dream has just begun
She remembers how good it can be
He remembers a melody
Ah, in the shadow of my shadow in a gleam
He remembers how good it can be
She remembers a melody
Well, in the shadow of my shadow in a gleam
(hours and hours of waiting for you
So strong and so fleeting)
The dream has just begun
(hours and hours of waiting this way...
Meeting, me)
Hours of waiting for you
(so strong and so fleeting)
The dream has just begun...
(meeting this way)
Straight back now
(hours and hours of waiting
So strong and so fleeting)
Hours and hours waiting this way
Hours and hours of waiting this way
Straight back
Straight back
Straight back... yeah!
He remembers a melody
He remembers how good it can be
song performed by by Fleetwood Mac
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Straight Back
Words and Music by Stevie Nicks
what can i say this time
which card shall i play
the dream is not over
the dream is just away
and you will fly like some little wing
straight back to the sun
the dream was never over
the dream has just begun
the dream has just begun.........dream....
my fingers find the ivory keys
ans a song begins to begin
like a wolf...on the run
and you will find
while in the wind
something that you lost
the dream was never over...no...
the dream was only lost
(hours and hours of waiting for you, so strong and so fleeting)
the dream has just begun
(and hours of waiting for you...in hopes of meeting)
the dream has just begun
(meeting this way)
well, the dream has just begun!
she remembers how good it can be...
he remembers a melody....
ah...in the shadow of my shadow....in a gleam...
he remembers how good it can be....
she remembersa melody.....
well...in the shadow of my shadow....in a dream...whoa....
(hours and hours of waiting for you...so strong and so fleeting)
the dream has just begun
(hours and hours of waiting this way...meeting me...)
and hours of waiting for you
(so strong and so fleeting)
the dream has just begun
(i'm tired of meeting this way)
straight back now
(hours and hours of waiting...so strong and so fleeting)
hours and hours of waiting this way
hours and hours of waiting this way
straight back
straight back
straight back......yeah!!
he remembers a melody...
he remembers how good it can be...
straight back
straight back
straight back......yeah!!
***********************************************************
song performed by by Fleetwood Mac
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A Year and a Day
Slow days have passed that make a year,
Slow hours that make a day,
Since I could take my first dear love
And kiss him the old way;
Yet the green leaves touch me on the cheek,
Dear Christ, this month of May.
I lie among the tall green grass
That bends above my head
And covers up my wasted face
And folds me in its bed
Tenderly and lovingly
Like grass above the dead.
Dim phantoms of an unknown ill
Float through my tired brain;
The unformed visions of my life
Pass by in ghostly train;
Some pause to touch me on the cheek,
Some scatter tears like rain.
A shadow falls along the grass
And lingers at my feet;
A new face lies between my hands --
Dear Christ, if I could weep
Tears to shut out the summer leaves
When this new face I greet.
Still it is but the memory
Of something I have seen
In the dreamy summer weather
When the green leaves came between:
The shadow of my dear love’s face --
So far and strange it seems.
The river ever running down
Between its grassy bed,
The voices of a thousand birds
That clang above my head,
Shall bring to me a sadder dream
When this sad dream is dead.
A silence falls upon my heart
And hushes all its pain.
I stretch my hands in the long grass
And fall to sleep again,
There to lie empty of all love
Like beaten corn of grain.
poem by Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Coloured Hours
GRAY hours have cities,
Green hours have rhymes
Of hearts grown loving
In old summertimes,
But the white hours have only
A cloud in the sky
And a star, bright and lonely,
To remember them by.
Gold hours have laughter,
Red hours have song
Drawn from lost fountains
Of beauty and wrong.
But the white hours,–O, tender
As rose-flakes they lie,
With youth's fallen splendour
To remember them by.
poem by Marjorie Lowry Christie Pickthall
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Diana
What are you looking for at night
When moon is shining in the springs
And where the birds in warble fight
Flapping enchanted their wings?
Can't you perceive this nice array
Of leaves that whisper in the glade
And kiss each other and they play
In the refreshing forest's shade?
And like in mirrors moving fast
You want to watch a funny game,
In waters that have come and passed,
While your big eyes remain the same?
The spring has filled the woods again
Reviving everything, in truth,
However, all your thoughts are vain,
Like Endymion's, that fair youth.
Why do you want to be alone
With the low voice of secret source?
To hear the leaves by the wind blown
And sleep on grass, dark green and coarse?
And from that light reaching the glade,
From the cold waves, from shadow's charms,
To rise a fairy, a dear maid,
With big blue eyes and naked arms?
Oh! Now the boughs are bent with care
By little arms, so snowy white,
By a sweet face with yellow hair
On a tall body, slim, upright.
A golden bow makes her complete
And going hunting with much grace
On the innumerable leaves
She barely left a tiny trace.
poem by Mihai Eminescu, translated by Octavian Cocoş
Submitted by Octavian Cocoş
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The Gallows
There was a weasel lived in the sun
With all his family,
Till a keeper shot him with his gun
And hung him up on a tree,
Where he swings in the wind and rain,
In the sun and in the snow,
Without pleasure, without pain,
On the dead oak tree bough.
There was a crow who was no sleeper,
But a thief and a murderer
Till a very late hour; and this keeper
Made him one of the things that were,
To hang and flap in rain and wind,
In the sun and in the snow.
There are no more sins to be sinned
On the dead oak tree bough.
There was a magpie, too,
Had a long tongue and a long tail;
He could talk and do -
But what did that avail?
He, too, flaps in the wind and rain
Alongside weasel and crow,
Without pleasue, without pain,
On the dead oak tree bough.
And many other beasts
And birds, skin, bone, and feather,
Have been taken from their feasts
And hung up there together,
To swing and have endless leisure
In the sun and in the snow,
Without pain, without pleasure,
On the dead oak tree bough.
poem by Edward Thomas
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The Wood-Nymph
-After a picture by Burne Jones-
The green leaves, ah, the green leaves cover me:
Would I might lose this unloved human life
And share the happy being of the leaves!
For lo, they live and grow and drink the sun
And sip the nectar of the heavenly showers
And have no sorrow with it; but they grow
Happily, and Pan at even blesses them.
While I, alas me hapless, I am joined
Part to their life, and all in longing to them;
Part to the gods, the bright gods whom I see
Flash through the woods at even or morn, and make
The beautiful familiar trees seem strange;
And part to mortals and their little life.
Green leaves that cover me, to you I mourn,
My sisters, my more happy sisters, ye
Rustle, rustle in the summer air,
With happy cries of birds among your boughs:
Be happy, though I am not happy. Nay,
I am not all unhappy, evermore.
One while a bird sings on the topmost bough
And my heart sings, forgetting life and death
And sorrow: so forgetting I were blest,
And bliss the gods deny me. When they walk
The forest before sundawn--Artemis,
Girt for the chase and followed by her hounds,
Queen Herê or another, ere the dawn,
Or Aphrodite with the rosy dawn--
I may not speak my longings, but they pass,
Pass unregardful to their happy heaven.
They see me not--not me, akin to Gods!
These tears are vain.--When mortals pass at eve,
Treading a delicate path between the trees,
Pale mortal men and women, with their loves--
It pains me that I see them, for I know
I am not as they are, and cannot share
The little love that fills their little life--
Vain, vain; and they too pass and see me not.
Ah me, dear leaves, forsaken of gods and men,
And sad because I cannot live their life,
Will you not love me whom none others love?
Will you not teach me how to live your life,
My sisters, my more happy sisters?--live
In peace and quietness and still content,
And freshen and fade and freshen and have no care
And have no longing, full of peace to live,
Forgetting thus for ever life and death
And Gods and men and sorrow and delight.
poem by Arthur Symons
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Lasso The Moon
She carries the water from the well in the morning
While the sand burns her feet the sun only stares
And the loneliness lingers with slow grasping fingers
As the afternoon withers the flowers in her hair
Then night fills the sky as she sits on the hillside
And memories drift by like clouds past the stars
Recalling romances and all the bright chances
But none of them lasted. they passed through her heart
And she says -
Where is a man who can build a good fire
With a passion as wide as the sky at high noon
A man whose hand is strong as his longing
Where is the man who can lasso the moon
She falls asleep and her dreams are her blanket
And she shares with the moon the secret she knows
As the dawn leaves its tears to wash the dry valley
The tears of a woman can wash a mans soul
And she says -
Where is a man who can build a good fire
With a passion as wide as the sky at high noon
A man whose hand is strong as his longing
Where is the man who can lasso the moon
And she says -
Where is a man who can build a good fire
With a passion as wide as the sky at high noon
A man whose hand is strong as his longing
Where is the man who can lasso the moon
And I say -
I am a man who can build a good fire
And my passions as wide as the sky at high noon
Come take my hand, its as strong as your longing
Just say the word and Ill lasso the moon
song performed by by Level 42
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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