Has grown heroic; a few crimson leaves

Have fallen here; yet not to yield their breath

In pitiful sighing at so sad a fate,

But royally, as with spilt blood of kings.

The full life throbs exultant in my veins,

Till half ashamed to wear so high a mood,

Not for some splendid triumph of the soul,

But simply in response to light and air,

Slowly I let it fall.

And later, steal