Autumn Chant

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Now the autumn shudders    
      In the rose’s root.
Far and wide the ladders      
      Lean among the fruit.

Now the autumn chambers
      Up the trellised frame,
And the rose remembers
      The dust from which it came.

Brighter than the blossom
      On the rose’s bough
Sits the wizened, orange,
      Bitter berry now;

Beauty never slumbers;
      All is in her name.
But the rose remembers
      The dust from which it came.

Edna St. Vincent Millay was a American poet and playwright who received the Pulitzer Prize in 1923.
Originally published:
October 1, 1922

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