'Tis past! we breathe! assuaged at length <br />The flames that drank our vital strength! <br />Smote with intolerable heat <br />No more our throbbing temples beat. <br />How clear the sky, how pure the air, <br />The heavens how bright, the earth how fair! <br />The bosom cool, the spirits light, <br />Active the day, and calm the night! <br /> <br />But O, the swiftly shortening day! <br />Low in the west the sinking ray! <br />With rapid pace advancing still <br />“The morning hoar, the evening chill,” <br />The falling leaf, the fading year, <br />And Winter ambushed in the rear! <br /> <br />Thus, when the fervid Passions cool, <br />And Judgement, late, begins to rule; <br />When Reason mounts her throne serene, <br />And social Friendship gilds the scene; <br />When man, of ripened powers possest, <br />Broods o'er the treasures of his breast; <br />Exults, in conscious worth elate, <br />Lord of himself—almost of fate; <br />Then, then declines the' unsteady flame, <br />Disease, slow mining, saps the frame; <br />Cold damps of age around are shed, <br />That chill the heart, and cloud the head. <br />The failing spirits prompt no more, <br />The curtain drops, life's day is o'er.<br /><br />Anna Laetitia Barbauld<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/an-autumnal-thought/
