Hélas! sans trop m’effrayer;
Je vais où va toute chose,
Où va la feuille de rose,
Où va la feuille de laurier.
These lines had been previously translated into English, before Rossetti, by Macaulay, as follows:—
Thou poor leaf, so sear and frail,
Sport of every wanton gale,
Whence and whither dost thou fly
Through this bleak autumnal sky?
On a noble oak I grew,