Autumn Flowers.

O crimson-tined flowers
That live when others die,
What thoughtless hand unloving
Could ever pass you by?
  
You are the last bright blossoms,
The summer's after-glow,
When all her early children
Have faded long ago.
  
Sweet golden-rod and xenia
And crimson marigold,
What dreams of autumn splendor
Your velvet leaves unfold.
  
Long, long ago the violets
Have closed their sweet blue eyes,
And lain with pale, dead faces
Beneath the summer skies.
  
And on their graves you blossom
With leaves of gold and red,
And yet--how soon forever
Your beauty will be fled.
  
The frost will come to kill you
The snows will wrap you round;
And you will sleep forgotten
Upon the frozen ground.
  
Your tints are like the beauty
The sunlight leaves behind,
And deep and full of sadness
The thoughts you bring to mind.
  
Dear memories of the summer!
Sweet tokens of the past!
You are the fairest flowers
Because you are the last.