Classic Poem

O autumn winds, with voices far away,
I hear you singing on the leafless hills,
And all my heart with jubilation thrills!
You bring to me no message of dismay,
No tender sorrow for the year's decay;
Rather you sing of giant trees that cast
Their leaves aside to grapple with the blast,
Strong and exultant for the stormy fray!

Hearing your music, glad and wild and pure,
Sounding through night's cool, starlit spaces wide,
I grow aweary of earth's paltry lure!
Oh, like the trees, I too would cast aside
The fading leaves of pleasure and of pride,
And stand forth free to struggle and endure!