by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950)

Language: English 
When reeds are dead and straw to thatch the marshes,
And feathered pampas-grass rides into the wind
Like agèd warriors westward, tragic, thinned
Of half their tribe; an over the flattened rushes,
Stripped of its secret, open, stark and bleak,
Blackens afar the half-forgotten creek, --
Then leans on me the weight of the year, and crushes
My heart. I know that beauty must ail and die,
And will be born again, -- but ah, to see
Beauty stiffened, staring up at the sky!
Oh, Autumn! Autumn! -- What is the Spring to me?

Composition:

    Set to music by Lowell Liebermann (b. 1961), "The Death of Autumn I", op. 123 no. 3 (2013) [ mezzo-soprano, clarinet, and piano quartet ], from Four Seasons, no. 3

Text Authorship:

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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-06-03
Line count: 11
Word count: 91