I have let my household disperse,

My dear ones have long been apart,

And a familiar loneliness

Fills all of nature and all my heart.

Here I am with you in the lodge.

No one walks through the woods these days.

As in the old song, undergrowth

Has almost hidden the forest ways.

Forlornly, the timber walls

Look down on the two of us here.

We did not promise to leap obstacles,

We shall fall at last in the clear.

We shall sit down from one till three,

You with embroidery, I deep

In a book, and at dawn shall not see

When we kiss each other to sleep.

More richly and more recklessly,

Leaves, leaves, give tongue and whirl away,

Fill yesterday’s cup of bitterness

With the sadness of today.

Impulse, enchantment, beauty!

Let’s dissolve in September wind

And enter the rustle of autumn!

Be still, or go out of your mind!

As the coppice lets slip its leaves,

You let your dress slip rustling down

And throw yourself into my arms

In your silk-tasselled dressing gown.

You are my joy on the brink

Of disaster, when life becomes

A plague, and beauty is daring,

And draws us into each other’s arms.