The Fall of the Leaf by Robert Burns
The poem presents a bleak autumn landscape as mist covers the hills, streams wind unseen, forests stand bare, and summer’s brightness has vanished. The speaker withdraws to reflect on the swift passage of Time, the relentless pursuit of Fate, and the wasted portions of a life whose remaining span may be short. Considering the losses Fate has caused and the weakening, darkening decline that follows life’s peak, the speaker concludes that earthly life cannot be sufficient in itself and that humanity must live for something beyond it.
By Robert Burns · First published 1792 · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Nature Poetry, Meditative Poetry · 207 words
First lines
The lazy mist hangs from the brow of the hill, / Concealing the course of the dark-winding rill; / How languid the scenes, late so sprightly, appear! / As Autumn to Winter resigns the pale year.
The forests are leafless, the meadows are brown, / And all the gay foppery of summer is flown: / Apart let me wander, apart let me muse, / How quick Time is flying, how keen Fate pursues!
How long I have liv'd-but how much liv'd in vain, / How little of life's scanty span may remain, / What aspects old Time in his progress has worn, / What ties cruel Fate, in my bosom has torn.
What this Textopian page supports
The Fall of the Leaf is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Burns, dated 1792 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Burns
- Date: 1792 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Nature Poetry, Meditative Poetry, Philosophical Poetry, Elegiac Poetry
- Length: 207 words
- Structure: 1 section, 4 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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- Work identity for The Fall of the Leaf by Robert Burns
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Similar titles
- Growing Old by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
- Farewell To Nature by Thomas Gordon Hake
- Fears In Solitude by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- An Autumn Reverie by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
- Despondency An Ode by Robert Burns
- Winter A Dirge by Robert Burns
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — The work is a short, highly musical first-person poem expressing an inward emotional and philosophical response to an autumnal landscape.
- Nature Poetry — Its imagery centers on misty hills, a winding stream, leafless forests, brown meadows, and the seasonal transition from autumn to winter.
- Meditative Poetry — The speaker withdraws to wander and muse, using solitude and natural scenery to contemplate time, mortality, and the meaning of life.
- Philosophical Poetry — The poem explicitly considers the brevity of life, the futility of human endeavor, the force of fate, and the possibility of existence beyond death.
Tags
Scottish poetry · lyric poem · meditative verse · autumn landscape · approaching winter · mist-covered hills · dark winding stream · leafless forests · faded summer · nature and mortality · passage of time · fleeting life