Leaves

Read 'Leaves' by 'Robert William Service' and provide your summary and literary analysis in the comments section below.

Leaves by Robert William Service

 The leaves are falling one and one,
 Each like a life to me,
As over-soonly in the sun
 They spiral goldenly:
So airily and warily
 They falter free.

The leaves are falling two and two,
 Beneath a baleful sky;
So silently the sward they strew,
 Reluctantly they die . . .
Rich crimson leaves,--and no one grieves
 There doom but I.

The leaves are falling three and three
 Beneath the mothlike moon;
They flutter downward silverly
 In muted rigadoon;
And russet dry remote they lie
 From feathered tune.

The leaves are lying numberless,
 Disconsolately dead;
Where lucent was their sylvan dress
 And lightsome was their tread,
They rot below the bitter snow,
 Uncomforted.

A leaf's a life, and one by one
 They drift each darkling day;
Rare friends who lusted in the sun
 Are frailing fast away . . . 
How sadly soon will mourn the moon
 My dark decay!

Form: Lyric Comments

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