Autumn Love

By Shounak Sinha Ray

The path was weary, long and grey,

With red leaves rustling on the floor:

Such hopeless love in his heart lay---

Wide as the skies and warm as May,

As he made way at her cottage door.

The candles were burning low and dim,

The shadows played in dark wilderness;

The lonely flickers to her did seem 

Like clouded stars as she pictured him:

While drops of pearl ran down her face.

His shadow lurked, her poor mind crawled;

As two souls stood on either side---

With hearts still alive, but stony-walled,

Selves smeared with a sad silence, stalled:

His hand fell, as her soul’s rising tide.

Like waves of a cloudy sea that cleft 

The radiant gold of a sandy shore:

With souls that stirred, with hearts that slept---

Her mind was storm, and he, parting, left

Withering blossoms at her door.

By Shounak Sinha Ray