Robert William Service (Роберт Уильям Сервис)

Leaves

The leaves are falling one and one,
Each like a life to me,
As over-soonly in the sun
They spiral goldenly:
So airily and warily
They falter free.

The leaves are falling two and two,
Beneath a baleful sky;
So silently the sward they strew,
Reluctantly they die...
Rich crimson leaves,--and no one grieves
There doom but I.

The leaves are falling three and three
Beneath the mothlike moon;
They flutter downward silverly
In muted rigadoon;
And russet dry remote they lie
From feathered tune.

The leaves are lying numberless,
Disconsolately dead;
Where lucent was their sylvan dress
And lightsome was their tread,
They rot below the bitter snow,
Uncomforted.

A leaf's a life, and one by one
They drift each darkling day;
Rare friends who lusted in the sun
Are frailing fast away...
How sadly soon will mourn the moon
My dark decay!

Robert William Service’s other poems:

  1. Spanish Women
  2. The Prospector
  3. Playboy
  4. Pullman Porter
  5. Abandoned Dog

Poems of other poets with the same name (Стихотворения других поэтов с таким же названием):

  • Sara Teasdale (Сара Тисдейл) Leaves (“ONE by one, like leaves from a tree”)

    905




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