When auburn Autumn mounts the stage, <br />And Summer fails her charms to yield, <br />Bleak nature turns another page, <br />To light the glories of the field. <br /> <br />At once the vale declines to bloom, <br />The forest smiles no longer gay; <br />Gardens are left without perfume, <br />The rose and lilly pine away. <br /> <br />The orchard bows her fruitless head, <br />As one divested of her store; <br />Or like a queen whose train has fled, <br />And left her sad to smile no more. <br /> <br />That bird which breath'd her vernal song, <br />And hopp'd along the flow'ry spray, <br />Now silent holds her warbling tongue, <br />Which dulcifies the feast of May. <br /> <br />But let each bitter have its sweet, <br />No change of nature is in vain; <br />'Tis just alternate cold and heat, <br />For time is pleasure mix'd with pain.<br /><br />George Moses Horton<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/departing-summer/
