Listen …
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees
And fall.
November Night
Summary
The short lyric arrests a single autumnal moment to meditate on transience: the imperative "Listen" draws the reader into a hushed, sensory scene where a "faint dry sound"—the brittle, frost-bitten leaves—falls "like steps of passing ghosts." Through tight auditory imagery and subtle personification, the stanza links natural decay to spectral, elegiac connotations, making the falling leaves feel both literal and emblematic of endings and lost presences; its spare diction and cool tone emphasize the quiet inevitability of seasonal (and by extension mortal) change.Read Online
