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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
AUTUMNAL, by WILLIAM ALEXANDER PERCY Poet's Biography First Line: To-night the tumult of the autumn wind Last Line: A little while, o leaves, and we shall know! Subject(s): Autumn; Death; Earth; Seasons; Wind; Fall; Dead, The; World | |||
To-night the tumult of the autumn wind Rushes between the ragged grey of heaven And earth's autumnal grey -- swift, swift and loud -- Filled with the wings of wild birds southward blown And with the wings of leaves that only fly Their red and golden flight when they are dead. And we who keep unwillingly the earth, Are caught, are caught up with the birds and the leaves, Are whirled above the spare, unblossoming fields, Along the pallid torrents of the air, Far from the earth we know, past the dead moon, Beyond the blue-lit, scattered spheres of night That flicker down the dark like shaken leaves, On, on, with the rushing wind of autumn, Out to the stark, last outpost of creation Where nothingness surges. . . . From that wan strand where breaks that ebon tide, Could we behold, were spirit vision ours, The blowing legions of the homeless dead In wraithy phosphorus against the void? A little while, O winds that rush and call, A little while, O leaves, and we shall know! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BROKEN BALANCE by ROBINSON JEFFERS SUBJECTED EARTH by ROBINSON JEFFERS GEOMETAPHYSICS by MARGARET AVISON NIAGARA by JOHN FREDERICK NIMS SOPHISTICATION by CONRAD AIKEN I SEE CHILE IN MY REARVIEW MIRROR by AGHA SHAHID ALI WASHING OUR HANDS OF THE REST OF AMERICA by MARVIN BELL THE EARTH IS A LIVING THING by LUCILLE CLIFTON OVERTONES by WILLIAM ALEXANDER PERCY |
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