Pink of Perfection

The Death of Autumn

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

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; and 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, A
nd will be born again,––but ah, to see
Beauty stiffened, staring up at the sky!
Oh, Autumn! Autumn!––What is the Spring to me?

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