{"id":4228,"date":"2007-11-09T16:31:35","date_gmt":"2007-11-09T20:31:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=4228"},"modified":"2007-11-09T16:32:07","modified_gmt":"2007-11-09T20:32:07","slug":"a-poem-for-leaf-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2007\/11\/a-poem-for-leaf-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"A poem for leaf fall"},"content":{"rendered":"

That time of year thou may’st in me behold
\nWhen yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
\nUpon those boughs which shake against the cold,
\nBare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang:\t <\/p>\n

In me thou see’st the twilight of such day
\nAs after sunset fadeth in the west,
\nWhich by-and-by black night doth take away,
\nDeath’s second self, that seals up all in rest:\t <\/p>\n

In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire,
\nThat on the ashes of his youth doth lie
\nAs the death-bed whereon it must expire,
\nConsumed with that which it was nourish’d by:\t <\/p>\n

This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,
\nTo love that well which thou must leave ere long.
\n ——W. Shakespeare, Sonnet 28<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I memorized this in the fall of 1993, my sophomore year at BYU, walking between my apartment at the Riviera and my classes on campus. That fall I listened to Smashing Pumpkins and wore docs and plaid flannel shirts. I don’t know why I did any of it, the flannel or the docs or the memorized poems, and I don’t know why this sonnet, and the memory of its memorization, has stayed with me for so long. <\/p>\n

I like autumn, but my neurosis for clean floors makes it difficult for me to relax into its loose-limbed leafiness. Rake and bag, rake and bag, the wind sings. Please share below your autumn observations, natural or metaphysical, compost recipes, and of course poems. <\/p>\n

Bonus question: I’ve always thought of Robert Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay” as an autumn poem, but upon closer reading I see that it’s actually about spring, isn’t it? <\/p>\n

Nature’s first green is gold,
\nHer hardest hue to hold.
\nHer early leaf’s a flower;
\nBut only so an hour.
\nThen leaf subsides to leaf.
\nSo Eden sank to grief,
\nSo dawn goes down to day.
\nNothing gold can stay.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That time of year thou may’st in me behold<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4228\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}