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| PURPLE Autumn unloosened her tresses and flung them | |
| On the heavens and over the dew-heavy fields. | |
| She came as a guest to the old, silent house, | |
| Singeing the grasses with red; | |
| Through the garden she moved,— | 5 |
| Up the balcony; scarcely she touched | |
| The fragile old rails. | |
| She pushed the door-panel softly, | |
| Softly she entered the room, | |
| Sprinkling the rugs with her sun-yellow dust, | 10 |
| Dropped a red leaf upon the piano… | |
| Ever after that hour, we heard her unceasing, her tireless rustling, | |
| Rustle and stir and soft whisper. | |
| And our hands suddenly met | |
| With no new words, new and forever false. | 15 |
| As though we had hung a wreath of red roses | |
| On a black, wrought-iron door | |
| Leading into a vault | |
| Where lay the rotting body | |
| Of a beloved dream. | 20 |
| Autumnal days were upon us, | |
| Days of inscrutable longing; | |
| We were treading the stairs | |
| Of autumnal passion. | |
| In my heart a wound, | 25 |
| Like the lamp of an ikon, | |
| Burned and would not be quenched. | |
| The cup of autumnal poison | |
| We pressed to our lips. | |
| By the serpentine garden path Autumn had led us | 30 |
| To crepuscular lilies | |
| Upon the pale, sand-humbled pond. | |
| And over the lilied waters and in the roses of evening, | |
| We loved, more superstitiously. | |
| And through the dark night, | 35 |
| On the languorous bed, | |
| At the feet of my love, | |
| I loved death anew. | |
| The minutes rang tinkling like crystals | |
| At the brink of an autumn grave: | 40 |
| Autumn and Death drunkenly clinked their glasses. | |
| I pressed my thirsty lips | |
| To the feet the ikon-lamp burnished, | |
| I drank the cup of love. | |
| Burned by the fires of sins, | 45 |
| Stretched on the cross of lusts, | |
| Shamed, being needlessly faithless, | |
| I drank the cup of love. | |
| In the hour of ineffable dalliance | |
| I sensed the whisper | 50 |
| Of autumn pain, of autumn passion. | |
| And kisses like keen needles | |
| Burned and pierced, | |
| Weaving a wreath of thorns. | |
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