Classic Poem

The Autumn winds are sounding wild; —
Sad Nature, mourn'st thou for thy child,
From the fresh air and green fields driven,
And all the beauteous face of Heaven,
Into the wilderness of stone;
Destined there to dwell alone,
Toiling upwards, day by day,
For the Fame that lives for aye,
And for Fortune (golden sun),
And all else that must be won?

Evening falls: the sky is wild;
And cloud on mountain cloud is piled,
And the black Tempest, o'er the plain
Comes moaning in his wrath of rain, —
Comes chiding, like an angry friend,
That I should leave thee, Old Grove End!
Ah, well! Time was , when thou and I
Were all in all, beneath the sky,
Unto each other; when I played
Upon thy grass; beneath thy shade;
Before thy hundred branching vines;
And where Ayr's wanderer rose entwines
The gray wall in its thorny arms,
And loved and laughed on all thy charms!
Farewell! — Farewell each path and lawn,
Each tree whose music met the dawn, —
Laburnums, with your drops of gold;
Broad Plane; Dark Mulberry, rich and old,
Rough-visaged, raining blood-red fruit,
(Which ladies' lips did sometimes suit,
As sweet tunes match the sweeter lute:)
Farewell, twin Poplars, — mine no more, —
Whom I in boyhood taught to soar;
(Why stand ye murmuring, morn and eve?
Is it for me ye strive to grieve?)
And thou, wild Giant Plant, who clingest
Column and trelliced arch about,
And shadows in thy vast leaves bringest,
Shutting the fiery West all out;
And you, ye myriad-coloured flowers,
Sweet playmates of the sunshine hours,
Farewell! — Farewell the dreams of youth;
When life was joy; when hope was truth;
When days were cloudless; Time too brief;
And my pillow was the poppy leaf:
When all the world was frank and true:
When Heaven was one eternal blue; —
Farewell! — and Thou, — nurse, guardian, friend,
Farewell for ever, — Old Grove End?