Dream.

La Thangue, Shaking Down the Cider Apples, 1899

AUTUMNAL

Pale amber sunlight falls across

The reddening October trees,

That hardly sway before a breeze

As soft as summer: summer's loss

Seems little, dear! on days like these.

Let misty autumn be our part!

The twilight of the year is sweet:

Where shadow and the darkness meet

Our love, a twilight of the heart

Eludes a little time's deceit.

Are we not better and at home

In dreamful Autumn, we who deem

No harvest joy is worth a dream?

A little while and night shall come,

A little while, then, let us dream.

Beyond the pearled horizons lie

Winter and night: awaiting these

We garner this poor hour of ease,

Until love turn from us and die

Beneath the drear November trees.

Ernest Dowson