565. Autumn

Walter Savage Landor. 1775-1864


MILD is the parting year, and sweet
  The odour of the falling spray;
Life passes on more rudely fleet,
  And balmless is its closing day.

I wait its close, I court its gloom,
  But mourn that never must there fall
Or on my breast or on my tomb
  The tear that would have soothed it all.

The Oxford Book of English Verse, HTML edition