Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AUTUMN FLOWERS, by CAROLINE ANNE BOWLES SOUTHEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AUTUMN FLOWERS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Those few pale autumn flowers
Last Line: Tell me of change and death!
Alternate Author Name(s): Bowles, Caroline Anne
Subject(s): Flowers


THOSE few pale autumn flowers!
How beautiful they are!
Than all that went before,
Than all the summer store,
How lovelier far!

And why? -- they are the last --
The last! -- the last! -- the last! --
Oh, by that little word,
How many thoughts are stirr'd!
That sister of the past!

Pale flowers! -- pale, perishing flowers!
Ye're types of precious things;
Types of those bitter moments
That flit, like life's enjoyments,
On rapid, rapid wings.

Last hours with parting dear ones,
(That time the fastest spends,)
Last tears, in silence shed,
Last words, half-uttered,
Last looks of dying friends!

Who but would fain compress
A life into a day;
The last day spent with one
Who, ere the morrow's sun,
Must leave us, and for aye?

O precious, precious moments!
Pale flowers! ye're types of those --
The saddest! sweetest! dearest!
Because, like those, the nearest
Is an eternal close.

Pale flowers! Pale, perishing flowers!
I woo your gentle breath;
I leave the summer rose
For younger, blither brows --
Tell me of change and death!






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