Summer’s Elegy

Day after day, day after still day, 
The summer has begun to pass away. 
Starlings at twilight fly clustered and call, 
And branches bend, and leaves begin to fall. 
The meadow and the orchard grass are mown, 
And the meadowlark's house is cut down.

The little lantern bugs have doused their fires, 
The swallows sit in rows along the wires. 
Berry and grape appear among the flowers 
Tangled against the wall in secret bowers, 
And cricket now begins to hum the hours 
Remaining to the passion's slow procession 
Down from the high place and the golden session 
Wherein the sun was sacrificed for us. 
A failing light, no longer numinous, 
Now frames the long and solemn afternoons 
Where butterflies regret their closed cocoons. 
We reach the place unripe, and made to know 
As with a sudden knowledge that we go 
Away forever, all hope of return 
Cut off, hearing the crackle of the burn- 
ing blade behind us, and the terminal sound 
Of apples dropping on the dry ground.