Alfred Austin - Unseasonable Snows lyrics

The leaves have not yet gone; then why do ye come, O white flakes falling from a dusky cloud? But yesterday my garden-plot was proud With uncut sheaves of ripe chrysanthemum. Some trees the winds have stripped; but look on some 'Neath double load of snow and foliage bowed, Unnatural Winter fashioning a shroud For Autumn's burial ere its pulse be numb. Yet Nature plays not an inhuman part: In her, our own vicissitudes we trace. Do we not cling to our accustomed place, Though journeying d**h have beckoned us to start? And faded smiles oft linger in the face, While grief's first flakes fall silent on the heart!