Go, sit upon the lofty hill, <br /> And turn your eyes around, <br />Where waving woods and waters wild <br /> Do hymn an autumn sound. <br />The summer sun is faint on them -- <br /> The summer flowers depart -- <br />Sit still -- as all transform'd to stone, <br /> Except your musing heart. <br /> <br />How there you sat in summer-time, <br /> May yet be in your mind; <br />And how you heard the green woods sing <br /> Beneath the freshening wind. <br />Though the same wind now blows around, <br /> You would its blast recall; <br />For every breath that stirs the trees, <br /> Doth cause a leaf to fall. <br /> <br />Oh! like that wind, is all the mirth <br /> That flesh and dust impart: <br />We cannot bear its visitings, <br /> When change is on the heart. <br />Gay words and jests may make us smile, <br /> When Sorrow is asleep; <br />But other things must make us smile, <br /> When Sorrow bids us weep! <br /> <br />The dearest hands that clasp our hands, -- <br /> Their presence may be o'er; <br />The dearest voice that meets our ear, <br /> That tone may come no more! <br />Youth fades; and then, the joys of youth, <br /> Which once refresh'd our mind, <br />Shall come -- as, on those sighing woods, <br /> The chilling autumn wind. <br /> <br />Hear not the wind -- view not the woods; <br /> Look out o'er vale and hill- <br />In spring, the sky encircled them -- <br /> The sky is round them still. <br />Come autumn's scathe -- come winter's cold -- <br /> Come change -- and human fate! <br />Whatever prospect Heaven doth bound, <br /> Can ne'er be desolate.<br /><br />Elizabeth Barrett Browning<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-autumn-3/
