THE LAZY mist hangs from the brow of the hill, <br />Concealing the course of the dark-winding rill; <br />How languid the scenes, late so sprightly, appear! <br />As Autumn to Winter resigns the pale year. <br /> <br /> <br />The forests are leafless, the meadows are brown, <br />And all the gay foppery of summer is flown: <br />Apart let me wander, apart let me muse, <br />How quick Time is flying, how keen Fate pursues! <br /> <br /> <br />How long I have liv'd—but how much liv'd in vain, <br />How little of life's scanty span may remain, <br />What aspects old Time in his progress has worn, <br />What ties cruel Fate, in my bosom has torn. <br /> <br /> <br />How foolish, or worse, till our summit is gain'd! <br />And downward, how weaken'd, how darken'd, how pain'd! <br />Life is not worth having with all it can give— <br />For something beyond it poor man sure must live.<br /><br />Robert Burns<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-fall-of-the-leaf-2/
