Henry Van Dyke (ca. 1852-1933)

from "The Fall of the Leaves"

I

In warlike pomp, with banners flowing,

The regiments of autumn stood:

I saw their gold and scarlet glowing

From every hillside, every wood.

Above the sea the clouds were keeping

Their secret leaguer, gray and still;

They sent their misty vanguard creeping

With muffled step from hill to hill.

All day the sullen armies drifted

Athwart the sky with slanting rain;

At sunset for a space they lifted,

With dusk they settled down again