In the brown grasses slanting with the wind,

Lone as a lad whose dog’s no longer near,

Lone as a mother whose only child has sinned,

Lone on the loved hill.... And below me here

The thistle-down in tremulous atmosphere

Along red clusters of the sumach streams;

The shrivelled stalks of goldenrod are sere,

And crisp and white their flashing old racemes.

(... forever ... forever ... forever ...)

This is the lonely season of the year,