I watch the leaves that flutter in the wind,
Bathing my eyes with coolness and my heart
Filling with springs of grateful sense anew,
Before my window—in wind and rain and sun.
And now the wind is gone and now the rain,
And all a motionless moment breathe; and now
Playful the wind comes back—again the shower,
Again the sunshine! Like a...
-
-
Vengeful across the cold November moors,
Loud with ancestral shame there came the bleak,
Sad wind that shrieked, and answered with a shriek,
Reverberant through lonely corridors.
The old man heard it; and he heard, perforce,
Words out of lips that were no more to speak—
Words of the past that shook the old man’s cheek
Like dead,... -
Nothing but leaves; the spirit grieves
Over a wasted life;
Sin committed while conscience slept,
Promises made, but never kept,
Hatred, battle, and strife;
Nothing but leaves!Nothing but leaves; no garnered sheaves
Of life’s fair, ripened grain;
Words, idle words, for earnest deeds;
We sow our seeds,—lo! tares... -
Death leaves Us homesick, who behind,
Except that it is gone
Are ignorant of its Concern
As if it were not born.
Through all their former Places, we
Like Individuals go
Who something lost, the seeking for
Is all that's left them, now — -
He parts Himself — like Leaves —
And then — He closes up —
Then stands upon the Bonnet
Of Any Buttercup —
And then He runs against
And oversets a Rose —
And then does Nothing —
Then away upon a Jib — He goes —
And dangles like a Mote
Suspended in the Noon...The fascinating chill that music leaves
Is Earth's corroboration
Of Ecstasy's impediment —
'Tis Rapture's germination
In timid and tumultuous soil
A fine — estranging creature —
To something upper wooing us
But not to our Creator —The Leaves like Women interchange
Exclusive Confidence —
Somewhat of nods and somewhat
Portentous inference.
The Parties in both cases
Enjoining secrecy —
Inviolable compact
To notoriety.To my quick ear the Leaves — conferred —
The Bushes — they were Bells —
I could not find a Privacy
From Nature's sentinels —
In Cave if I presumed to hide
The Walls — begun to tell —
Creation seemed a mighty Crack —
To make me visible —