Transitioning to Autumn

Today it is cool! Cool for the first time in ages. So I started thinking about autumn and all the things I love about it--and then I remembered its brevity, and was reminded of this poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

THE DEATH OF AUTUMN

"WHEN reeds are dead and a straw to thatch the marshes,
And feathered pampas-grass rides into the wind
Like agèd warriors westward, tragic, thinned
Of half their tribe, and over the flattened rushes,
Stripped of its secret, open, stark and bleak,
Blackens afar the half-forgotten creek,–
Then leans on me the weight of the year, and crushes
My heart. I know that Beauty must ail and die,
And will be born again,–but ah, to see
Beauty stiffened, staring up at the sky!
Oh, Autumn ! Autumn !–What is the Spring to me?"

Edna St. Vincent Millay