Page:The poems of Emma Lazarus volume 1.djvu/213

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AUTUMN SADNESS.
199

AUTUMN SADNESS.

Air and sky are swathed in gold
Fold on fold,
Light glows through the trees like wine.
Earth, sun-quickened, swoons for bliss
Neath his kiss,
Breathless in a trance divine.

Nature pauses from her task,
Just to bask
In these lull’d transfigured hours.
The green leaf nor stays nor goes,
But it grows
Royaler than mid-June’s flowers.

Such impassioned silence fills
All the hills
Burning with unflickering fire—
Such a blood-red splendor stains
The leaves veins,
Life seems one fulfilled desire.

While earth, sea, and heavens shine,
Heart of mine,
Say, what art thou waiting for?
Shall the cup ne er reach the lip,
But still slip
Till the life-long thirst give o’er?