Poet's Perch: A Leaf Treader by Robert Frost

A Leaf Treader

I have been treading on leaves all day until I am autumn-tired.

God knows all the color and forms of leaves I have trodden on and mired.

Perhaps I have put forth too much strength and been too fierce from fear.

I have safely trodden under foot the leaves of another year.

All summer long they were overhead more lifted up than I;

To come to their final place in earth they had to pass me by.

All summer long I thought I heard them threatening under their breath.

And when they came it seemed with a will to carry me with them to death.

They spoke to the fugitive in my heart as if it were leaves to leaf;

They tapped at my eyelids and touched my lips with an invitation to grief.

But it was no reason I had to go because they had to go.

Now up, my knee, to keep on top of another year of snow.

Robert Frost