Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PURPLE AUTUMN, by GEORGY IVANOVICH CHULKOV First Line: Purple autumn unloosened her tresses and flung them Last Line: Weaving a wreath of thorns. Variant Title(s): Autumnal Love Subject(s): Autumn; Death; Hearts; Kisses; Love - Loss Of; Passion; Seasons; Fall; Dead, The | ||||||||
Purple Autumn unloosened her tresses and flung them On the heavens and over the dew-heavy fields. She came as a guest to the old, silent house, Singeing the grasses with red; Through the garden she moved, Up the balcony; scarcely she touched The fragile old rails. She pushed the door-panel softly, Softly she entered the room, Sprinkling the rugs with her sun-yellow dust, Dropped a red leaf upon the piano ... Ever after that hour, we heard her unceasing, her tireless rustling, Rustle and stir and soft whisper. And our hands suddenly met With no new words, new and forever false. As though we had hung a wreath of red roses On a black, wrought-iron door Leading into a vault Where lay the rotting body Of a beloved dream. Autumnal days were upon us, Days of inscrutable longing; We were treading the stairs Of autumnal passion. In my heart a wound, Like the lamp of an ikon, Burned and would not be quenched. The cup of autumnal poison We pressed to our lips. By the serpentine garden path Autumn had led us To crepuscular lilies Upon the pale, sand-humbled pond. And over the lilied waters and in the roses of evening, We loved, more superstitiously. And through the dark night, On the languorous bed, At the feet of my love, I loved death anew. The minutes rang tinkling like crystals At the brink of an autumn grave: Autumn and Death drunkenly clinked their glasses. I pressed my thirsty lips To the feet the ikon-lamp burnished, I drank the cup of love. Burned by the fires of sins, Stretched on the cross of lusts, Shamed, being needlessly faithless, I drank the cup of love. In the hour of ineffable dalliance I sensed the whisper Of autumn pain, of autumn passion. And kisses like keen needles Burned and pierced, Weaving a wreath of thorns. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A FRIEND KILLED IN THE WAR by ANTHONY HECHT FOR JAMES MERRILL: AN ADIEU by ANTHONY HECHT TARANTULA: OR THE DANCE OF DEATH by ANTHONY HECHT CHAMPS D?ÇÖHONNEUR by ERNEST HEMINGWAY NOTE TO REALITY by TONY HOAGLAND THE CHANT OF THE VULTURES by EDWIN MARKHAM |
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