Poems (Mary Coleridge)/Poem 109

CIX SEPTEMBER
Now every day the bracken browner grows,
  Even the purple stars
  Of clematis, that shone about the bars,
Grow browner; and the little autumn rose
  Dons, for her rosy gown,
  Sad weeds of brown.

Now falls the eve; and ere the morning sun,
  Many a flower her sweet life will have lost,
  Slain by the bitter frost,
Who slays the butterflies also, one by one;
  The tiny beasts
  That go about their business and their feasts.