SAD-HEARTED spirit of the solitudes, Who comest through the ruin-wedded woods! Gray-gowned with fog, gold-girdled with the gloom Of tawny twilights; burdened with perfume Of rain-wet uplands, chilly with the mist; And all the beauty of the fire-kissed Cold forests crimsoning thy indolent way, Odorous of death and drowsy with decay. I think of thee as seated 'mid the showers Of languid leaves that cover up the flowers, -- The little flower-sisterhoods, whom June Once gave wild sweetness to, as to a tune A singer gives her sours wild melody, -- Watching the squirrel store his granary. Or, 'mid old orchards I have pictured thee: Thy hair's profusion blown about thy back; One lovely shoulder bathed with gypsy black; Upon thy palm one nestling check, and sweet The rosy russets tumbled at thy feet. Was it a voice lamenting for the flowers? A heart-sick bird that sang of happier hours? A cricket dirging days that soon must die? Or did the ghost of Summer wander by? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE ELEPHANT by HILAIRE BELLOC SONG OF THE OPEN COUNTRY by DOROTHY PARKER EPILOGUE TO DRAMATIS PERSONAE by ROBERT BROWNING IN THE OLD THEATRE, FIESOLE by THOMAS HARDY CELIA'S HOMECOMING by AGNES MARY F. ROBINSON THE ADORATION OF DISK BY KING AKHNATEN AND PRINCESS NEFER NEFERIU ATEN by AKHENATEN THE VIOLINIST by MARGARET STEELE ANDERSON |