A childlike voice opens the poem by asking where to find fresh flowers to celebrate the end of the year. Everything looks burnt and withered — the banks are yellow, the branches bare — so there is a sense of loss and longing for the garlands “we once had.” The second half is an older speaker’s gentle reply. They cannot say where the dead leaves drift when the wind scatters them, but they offer a calm reassurance: next year’s garlands will bloom again, and the young one can gather them then. The final line shifts into a quiet farewell. The speaker knows they will not be here to see that renewal; they will follow last year’s lost leaves, becoming part of the autumn they are watching. The mood is tender and melancholy, balancing the ache of mortality with the soft promise of nature’s return.
A Song of Autumn — Summary
‘WHERE shall we go for our garlands glad At the falling of the year, When the burnt-up banks are yellow and sad, When the boughs are yellow and sere? Where are the old ones that once we had, And when are the new ones near? What shall we do for our garlands glad At the falling of the year?’ ‘Child! can I tell where the garlands go? Can I say where the lost leaves veer On the brown-burnt banks, when the wild winds blow, When they drift through the dead-wood drear? Girl! when the garlands of next year glow, You may gather again, my dear— But I go where the last year’s lost leaves go At the falling of the year.’