The verdant foliage of the trees
Will soon be scattered in the breeze,
Or huddled in some sheltered nook,
Or floated down the passing brook. The leaves have changed their summer green
For autumn's richer, golden sheen.
The sear, the yellow and the red,
The brown, the withered and the dead.
Thus nature's beauties pass away,
And quickly hasten to decay. How beautiful the maple leaf
While blushing to conceal its grief.
Tho' pleasing in its every stage,
Yet still more beautiful in age. O! Canada thy symbol leaf
Of lovely foliage is the chief!
How emblematic is thy choice,
For that loved leaf has found a voice,
Which tells me that a verdant youth,
If beautified with love and truth,
Shall still with mellowed lustre shine
More beautiful at life's decline. It always makes me sad to see
At autumn's close a leafless tree;
It points me to life's darkest stage,
A friendless, cheerless, dim old age.
But winter's gloom shall pass away
And spring return with flowerets gay,
To clothe again that leafless tree
In nature's verdant drapery. Thrice happy he whose hope ascends
To that fair spring which never ends,
Where flowers in perennial bloom
Adorn that home beyond the tomb. The wearied sons of want and toil,
Who oft' find earth a barren soil,
Tho' friendless as a leafless tree
And schooled in suffering poverty,
Yet rich in faith, rejoice and sing,
Awaiting that eternal spring,
When God, in whom they put their trust,
Shall animate their sleeping dust
And bear them to his heavenly throne,
Where chilling winters are unknown. Then let the storm-clouds veil the sky,
The lovely leaflets sear and die,
'Tis but the gloaming of the night,
And day shall dawn serenely bright,
And usher in a glorious day,
When all the gloom has passed away. My life is like a fading leaf,
My days how few, my years how brief!
But if my trust be not in vain
I yet shall live and bloom again.
- S. Moore