by John Banister Tabb (1845 - 1909)

Autumn Song
Language: English 
My life is but a leaf upon [the]1 tree-
A growth upon the stem that feedeth all.
A touch of frost-and suddenly I fall,
To follow where my sister-blossoms be.

The selfsame sun, the shadow, and the rain,
That brought the budding verdure to the bough,
Shall strip the fading foliage as now,
And leave the limb in nakedness again.

My life is but a leaf upon [the]1 tree;
The winds of birth and death upon it blow;
But whence it came and [whither]2 it shall go,
Is mystery of mysteries to me.

Available sung texts:   ← What is this?

•   R. Stöhr 

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Stöhr: "a"
2 Stöhr: "whether" (typo?)

Text Authorship:

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Richard Stöhr (1874 - 1967), "Autumn Song", op. 91 (Twelve Songs) no. 11 (1943-1944) [ voice and piano ], unpublished; manuscript at Saint Michael's College Archives and available in scanned form at the Petrucci Music Library [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this page: Johann Winkler

This text was added to the website: 2021-09-12
Line count: 12
Word count: 95