Poetry Revisited: The Fall of the Leaf by Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon

The Fall of the Leaf

(from The Poetical Works of Mrs. Leprohon: 1881)

Earnest and sad the solemn tale
     That the sighing winds give back,
Scatt'ring the leaves with mournful wail
     O'er the forest's faded track;
Gay summer birds have left us now
     For a warmer, brighter clime,
Where no leaden sky or leafless bough
     Tell of change and winter-time.

Reapers have gathered golden store
     Of maize and ripened grain,
And they'll seek the lonely fields no more
     Till the springtide comes again.
But around the homestead's blazing hearth
     Will they find sweet rest from toil,
And many an hour of harmless mirth
     While the snow-storm piles the soil.

Then, why should we grieve for summer skies–
     For its shady trees - its flowers,
Or the thousand light and pleasant ties
     That endeared the sunny hours?
A few short months of snow and storm,
     Of winter's chilling reign,
And summer, with smiles and glances warm,
     Will gladden our earth again.

Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon (1832-1879)
English-Canadian writer and poet