Back Aa

By the Aurelian Wall and Other Elegies

Close

{127} <h2>THE GRAVE-TREE</h2> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> Let me have a scarlet maple For the grave-tree at my head, With the quiet sun behind it, In the years when I am dead. </div> <div class="stanza"> Let me have it for a signal, Where the long winds stream and stream, Clear across the dim blue distance, Like a horn blown in a dream;{128} </div> <div class="stanza"> Scarlet when the April vanguard Bugles up the laggard Spring, Scarlet when the bannered Autumn, Marches by unwavering. </div> <div class="stanza"> It will comfort me with honey When the shining rifts and showers Sweep across the purple valley And bring back the forest flowers. </div> <div class="stanza"> It will be my leafy cabin, Large enough when June returns And I hear the golden thrushes Flute and hesitate by turns.{129} </div> <div class="stanza"> And in fall, some yellow morning, When the stealthy frost has come, Leaf by leaf it will befriend me As with comrades going home. </div> <div class="stanza"> Let me have the Silent Valley And the hill that fronts the east, So that I can watch the morning Redden and the stars released. </div> <div class="stanza"> Leave me in the Great Lone Country, For I shall not be afraid With the shy moose and the beaver There within my scarlet shade.{130} </div> <div class="stanza"> I would sleep, but not too soundly, Where the sunning partridge drums, Till the crickets hush before him When the Scarlet Hunter comes. </div> <div class="stanza"> That will be in warm September, In the stillness of the year, When the river-blue is deepest And the other world is near. </div> <div class="stanza"> When the apples burn their reddest And the corn is in the sheaves, I shall stir and waken lightly At a footfall in the leaves.{131} </div> <div class="stanza"> It will be the Scarlet Hunter Come to tell me time is done; On the idle hills forever There will stand the idle sun. </div> <div class="stanza"> There the wind will stay to whisper Many wonders to the reeds; But I shall not fear to follow Where my Scarlet Hunter leads. </div> <div class="stanza"> I shall know him in the darkling Murmur of the river bars, While his feet are on the mountains Treading out the smoldering stars.{132} </div> <div class="stanza"> I shall know him, in the sunshine Sleeping in my scarlet tree, Long before he halts beside it Stooping down to summon me. </div> <div class="stanza"> Then fear not, my friends, to leave me In the boding autumn vast; There are many things to think of When the roving days are past. </div> <div class="stanza"> Leave me by the scarlet maple, When the journeying shadows fail, Waiting till the Scarlet Hunter Pass upon the endless trail. </div> </div></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

1 of 2

2 of 2