Poème d’Automne

"Poème d’Automne" is from Margaret Bonds' song cycle Songs of the Season, which sets four poems of Langston Hughes. The songs are unpublished.

Date: 1955Composer: Margaret BondsText: Langston HughesSong Collection: Songs of the Seasons

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Poème d’Automne
by Langston Hughes

The autumn leaves
Are too heavy with color.
The slender trees
On the Vulcan Road
Are dressed in scarlet and gold
Like young courtesans
Waiting for their lovers.
But soon
The winter winds
Will strip their bodies bare
And then
The sharp, sleet-stung
Caresses of cold
Will be their only
Love.

–The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes

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