THE AUTUMN RAIN

by: Christopher Cranch (1813-1892)

1

 

OOF and spire and darkened vane

Steep and soak in the night-long rain

That drips through the barns on the golden grain;

And a drowning mist sweeps over the plain,

And spatters with mud the rutted lane

And the dead flower stalks that bud not again.

 

2

 

Wind-driven drops of the autumn rain,

Beat, beat on the window-pane!

Beat, beat, sorrowful rain!

Drive through the night o'er the desolate plain!

Beat and sob to the old refrain,

And weep for the years that come not again.

 

3

 

Years, with your mingling of joy and of pain,--

Joys long forgotten, and cares that remain;

Hopes lying stranded and choked in the drain

Of the down-rushing river of fate,--I would fain

Sigh with the night-wind and weep with the rain,

For ye come not again!--ye come not again!

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