Wallace Gould. Postlude. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22.

Postlude

By Wallace Gould


From “In Maine” BY night, in autumn, do you ever listen
for the waterfowl that are leaving the north?
In the east, there is, perhaps, a harvest moon—
a golden moon in a porcelain sky—
and there are, perhaps, big stars that flare	5
in a pellucid indigo.
The fields and the meadows are of bronze.
The stark stump fences are of silver, unburnished.
The squashes and the pumpkins are of gold, unburnished.
But do you ever listen for the cries	10
of the waterfowl that are going away?

In the cold, clear mornings of autumn days,
do you ever watch for the waterfowl?
The squashes and the pumpkins glisten with frost,
and their blighted leaves,	15
all limp,
all black,
droop, like the wings of slumbering bats.
The winds, indifferent, listless, murmur among themselves.
Disclosing ripe apples,	20
red or russet,
the bronze, tattered leaves
flutter or sidle to the ground.
But do you ever search the skies
for the waterfowl that are going away?	25