The Parting of Summer - An 1862 Poem

By Rev. T.L. Harris.

The Summer fades; the autumn shades

Will, coldly, soon be here :

The fitful blasts is whistling past

The sunset leaves and sere.

 

The birds of song, a sportive throng;

Have fled the treeless bowers,

As if they grew, when spring was new,

And perished with the flowers.

 

It is time for thoughts that climb

The spirals of the sky,

Where hearts unfold, in joys untold,

And roses never die.

 

The airy flowers, that blest the hours,

With tints of summer bloom,

In silent grace, for upper spaces,

Have left their seeming tomb.

 

So heart, my heart, thy loves depart,

But only seem to fail;

To Heaven they rise, in fairer guise,

And over death prevail.

August 30, 1862. Port Royal New South 1(4): 1.