THE
GRAVE-TREE
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LET
me have a scarlet maple
For the grave-tree at my head,
With the quiet sun behind it,
In the years when I am dead.
Let me have it for a signal,
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Where
the long winds stream and stream,
Clear across the dim blue distance,
Like a horn blown in a dream;
Scarlet when the April vanguard
Bugles up the laggard Spring,
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Scarlet
when the bannered Autumn,
Marches by unwavering.
It will comfort me with honey
When the shining rifts and showers
Sweep across the purple valley
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| And
bring back the forest flowers.
It will be my leafy cabin,
Large enough when June returns
And I hear the golden thrushes
Flute and hesitate by turns.
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And in fall, some yellow morning,
When the stealthy frost has come,
Leaf by leaf it will befriend me
As with comrades going home.
Let me have the Silent Valley
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And
the hill that fronts the east,
So that I can watch the morning
Redden and the stars released.
Leave me in the Great Lone Country,
For I shall not be afraid
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With
the shy moose and the beaver
There within my scarlet shade.
I would sleep, but not too soundly,
Where the sunning partridge drums,
Till the crickets hush before him
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| When
the Scarlet Hunter comes.
That will be in warm September,
In the stillness of the year,
When the river-blue is deepest
And the other world is near.
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When the apples burn their reddest
And the corn is in the sheaves,
I shall stir and waken lightly
At a footfall in the leaves.
It will be the Scarlet Hunter
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Come
to tell me time is done;
On the idle hills forever
There will stand the idle sun.
There the wind will stay to whisper
Many wonders to the reeds;
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But
I shall not fear to follow
Where my Scarlet Hunter leads.
I shall know him in the darkling
Murmur of the river bars,
While his feet are on the mountains
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| Treading
out the smoldering stars.
I shall know him, in the sunshine
Sleeping in my scarlet tree,
Long before he halts beside it
Stooping down to summon me.
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Then fear not, my friends, to leave me
In the boding autumn vast;
There are many things to think of
When the roving days are past.
Leave me by the scarlet maple,
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When
the journeying shadows fail,
Waiting till the Scarlet Hunter
Pass upon the endless trail.
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