"The Leaf" And "The Last Leaf": Andrew Young

The leaves, alas, are quickly vanishing as the wind and the rain do their work.  Yet, a few survivors remain.  Here, on that subject, are two poems by Andrew Young.

               The Leaf

Sometimes an autumn leaf
   That falls upon the ground,
   Gives the heart a wound
And wakes an ancient grief.

But I weep not that all
   The leaves of autumn die,
   I only weep that I
Should live to see them fall.

                                              Arthur Anderson Fraser
                                         "Punting on the Flood" (1891)

               The Last Leaf

I saw how rows of white raindrops
   From bare boughs shone,
And how the storm had stript the leaves
   Forgetting none
Save one left high on a top twig
   Swinging alone;
Then that too bursting into song
   Fled and was gone.

Andrew Young, Collected Poems (1960).

                                            Arthur Anderson Fraser
                          "The Ouse, Bedford from Newenham" (1886)