The Falling Leaves
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November 1915
Today, as I rode by,
I saw the brown leaves dropping from their tree
In a still afternoon,
When no wind whirled them whistling to the sky,
But thickly, silently,
They fell, like snowflakes wiping out the noon;
And wandered slowly thence
For thinking of a gallant multitude
Which now all withering lay,
Slain by no wind of age or pestilence,
But in their beauty strewed
Like snowflakes falling on the Flemish clay.
We had our gutters cleaned out yesterday. At this time of year, we're bombarded by a ton of sycamore and ash seeds, and also nearly every oak tree within a hundred yards...
ReplyDelete0/10 for the so-called "poem" - I have never understood why a few lines of rambling, unrhyming prose ever deserved the description of "poem - and, en passant, isn't the past participle of to strew, strewn, and not strewed? Or is that just me? I had a very strict English teacher who would have flipped if he had read that!
10/10 for showing initiative to get your gutters cleaned out. When our new neighbours moved in a couple of years ago, the wife's mother insisted on doing their garden. She installed a couple of what my wife calls "jungle trees" which should never be planted in a domestic garden as they grow very quickly and have very small leaves - which drop off in their thousands come moulting time. Our garden was regularly inundated daily, until I complained quite vociferously about having to sweep them up every day. Mater got the message and both of those trees met their end quite rapidly thereafter. They now have giant palm trees which (a) look quite nice and (b) only shed their leaves/branches singly and immediately alongside and below their own trunks. So now we have no horticultural disputes with our otherwise quite friendly neighbours.
I was in a beautiful part of Surrey for a few days last week and it was a delightful pleasure to see a stand of tall barren trees outlined against a clear blue sky with a layer of early morning frost on the grass. We don't get to see sights like that in this part of the globe very often, but neither do we get early morning frost and fog either! It was nice to get back to being warm again!!
The bane of my life, every autumn I swear I'm moving to a desert, mind you a leaf bonfire is very satisfying.
ReplyDeleteWe have a big magnolia which drops loads of large leathery leaves which don't rot down easily. Always a pain to deal with.
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