The Autumn

9How there you sat in summer-time,

10May yet be in your mind;

11And how you heard the green woods sing

12Beneath the freshening wind.

13Though the same wind now blows around,

14You would its blast recall;

15For every breath that stirs the trees,

16Doth cause a leaf to fall.

17Oh! like that wind, is all the mirth

18That flesh and dust impart:

19We cannot bear its visitings,

20When change is on the heart.

21Gay words and jests may make us smile,

22When Sorrow is asleep;

23But other things must make us smile,

24When Sorrow bids us weep!

25The dearest hands that clasp our hands, —

26Their presence may be o'er;

27The dearest voice that meets our ear,

28That tone may come no more!

29Youth fades; and then, the joys of youth,

30Which once refresh'd our mind,

31Shall come — as, on those sighing woods,

32The chilling autumn wind.

33Hear not the wind — view not the woods;

34Look out o'er vale and hill-

35In spring, the sky encircled them —

36The sky is round them still.

37Come autumn's scathe — come winter's cold —

38Come change — and human fate!

39Whatever prospect Heaven doth bound,

40Can ne'er be desolate.