SCHERZO
Reading edition
WHEN the down is on the chin And the gold-gleam in the hair, When the birds their sweethearts win And champagne is in the air Love is here, and Love is there, Love is welcome everywhere. Summer’s cheek too soon turns thin, Day grows briefer, sunshine rare; Autumn from his cannikin Blows the froth to chase Despair: Love is met with frosty stare, Cannot house ’neath branches bare. When new life is in the leaf And new red is in the rose, Though Love’s Maytime be as brief As a dragon-fly’s repose, Never moments come like those, Be they Heaven or Hell: who knows? All too soon comes Winter’s grief, Spendthrift Love’s false friends turn foes; Softly comes Old Age, the thief, Steals the rapture, leaves the throes: Love his mantle round him throws,— “Time to say good-bye; it snows.” James Russell Lowell.