POETRY.
AUTUMN VOICES.
WHEN I was in the wood to-day The golden leaves were falling round me ; And I thought I heard soft voices say Words that with sad enchantment bound me.
0 dying year ! 0 flying year !
0 days of dimness, nights of sorrow ! 0 lessening light ! 0 lengthening night ! 0 morn forlorn, and hopeless morrow !
No bodies visible had these Whose voice I heard so sadly calling; They were the spirits of the trees Lamenting for the bright leaves falling. Prisoners in naked trunks they lie ; In leafless boughs have lodging slender; But soon as Spring is in the sky They deck again the woods with splendour.
The light leaves rustled on the ground, Wind-stirred; and when again I hearkened, Hushed were those voices. Wide around Night fell, and all the ways were darkened.
F. W. B.
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