| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | A Confidence | | By William Carlos Williams |
| | From “Root Buds”
TODAY, dear friend, this gray day, | |
| I have been explaining to a young man of the West Indies | |
| How the leaves all fall from the little branches | |
| And lie soon in crowds along the bare ground; | |
| How they lie | 5 |
| On all sides so thick that no man | |
| May pass any way without touching them, | |
| Or hearing at his feet a great crying-out! | |
| |
| But in no way at all could I have told him | |
| This that I tell you so easily: | 10 |
| How having become wise as a flame with watching | |
| Above the year since that time he lifted | |
| His young face | |
| For a moment—that time of the first passing— | |
| They lie exultant, pressing his foot-prints, | 15 |
| Melting away because of their passion! | | | | |
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