Here is the autumn’s coloured violence:
The canopy curling, blistering; trees
Tearing the eye open to see
The bright decay of green shade.
A terrible beauty is newly spread
On every natural surface. Here,
Alone in the woods, I strain to hear
The famished paw that presses quick
On the snapping ground. A flash of eyes,
Unknowing, pale. A flash of its eyes,
And my heart is peeled with a winter fear.
Strike now, and lay your paw upon
Me; now, while all around us death
Remains more beautiful than life.