As imperceptibly as Grief
The Summer lapsed away –
Too imperceptible at last
To feel like Perfidy –A Quietness distilled –
As Twilight long begun –
Or Nature – spending
with Herself
Sequestered Afternoon –

 

Sobriety inhered
Though gaudy influence
The Maple lent unto
the Road
And graphic Consequence

 

⁺Invested sombre place –
As suddenly be worn
By sober Individual
A Homogenous Gown –

 

 ¦

Departed was the Bird –
And scarcely had the
Hill
A flower to help His
straightened face
In stress of Burial –

 

The Winds came closer
up –
The Cricket spoke
so clear
Presumption was – His
Ancestors
Inherited the Floor –

 

The Dusk drew
earlier in –
The Morning foreign
shone –
The courteous – but
harrowing Grace

 

 ¦

Of Guest who would be
gone –

 

And thus, without a
Wing
Or Service of a Keel –
Our Summer made Her
light Escape
⁺Unto  ↓ + into ↑ the Beautiful –