Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AUTUMN ORCHARDS, by CLARK ASHTON SMITH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AUTUMN ORCHARDS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Walled with fair azures of the wintering year
Last Line: Of love is colored like the dying year.
Subject(s): Autumn; Orchards; Seasons; Fall


Walled with fair azures of the wintering year,
Late autumn on a windless altar burns:
Splendid as rubies from Sabean urns,
A holocaust of hues is gathered here.

The pear-trees lift a Tyrian tinged with blood;
Strange purples lighten in the smouldering plums;
The fire-red gold of peach and cherry comes
To storm the bronzing borders of the wood.

Rich as the pyre of some Hesperian queen,
Feeding the ultimate sunset with sad fires,
Is this, where Beauty with her doom conspires
To tell in flame what she and death may mean.

O loveliness grown tragical and dear!
My heart hath taken from the torchful leaf
A swiftly soaring glory, and the grief
Of love is colored like the dying year.





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