g vanished.

V. Love Poems in Autumn

Ballad

Follow, follow me into the South,
And if you are brave and wise
I'll buy you laughter for your mouth,
Sorrow for your eyes.

I'll buy you laughter, wild and sweet,
And sorrow, grey and still,
But you must follow with willing feet
Over the farthest hill.

Follow, follow me into the South,
You may return tomorrow
Wearing my kisses on your mouth,
In your eyes my sorrow.

The Pathway of Black Leaves

I. THE TURNING

The pathway opened before her eyes
Between black leaves--
She laughed, and shivered, and turned aside
From the dusty road.

Her feet moved on like heart-beats,
She could not stop them;
Relentlessly each step fulfilled itself
And the steps behind it--
A hidden chain, drawing her onward
Captive.

And yet she said: "Now I walk free
At last!"

II. TOLL-GATE

The sign read:

"Paupers may pass untaxed,
The Rich shall pay a penny,
The Poor
Must give all they possess."

She emptied her pockets bravely and passed through...
They gave her a golden coin in return for her silver,
Bearing on one side the head of a king,
And on the other a worn inscription
Curved like a wreath
And written in a tongue she did not know.

III. THE INN

There was the inn, beside the path,
Standing like the words of an ancient prophet
Forgotten long, now suddenly come true.

"They who break bread here
Shall not eat for hunger;
They who lie here
Shall not sleep."

All night long the black leaves, one by one,
Laughed, and shivered, and fell into darkness.

IV. RETURN

She has come home
To the house she knew:
But she has forgotten
The square oaken smile of the door.

The room is a stranger,
The fire is sullen;
On her hair a black leaf shines
And clings where it fell.

Against her heart
She has hidden away
The bitter golden profile of a king.

Elegy

I would be autumn earth, and hold
Your beautiful body, slain,
Where, lying still and cold,
Only the winter rain
Shall touch your limbs and face;
Where the white frost shall wed.
Your body to black mould
In the close, passionless embrace
Of that dark marriage bed:
I would be autumn earth, and hold
Your beautiful body, dead.

Sequence

I. ARRIVAL

Shining highways
Sing