The speaker fixes on a single autumn scene: small yellow leaves falling through still air onto dark water, with a marble statue of Venus nearby. What stays with her is not action but atmosphere—quiet, repetition, and the strange uncertainty of whether Venus is pointing to her breasts or trying to cover them. That unanswered gesture makes even beauty and love feel exposed and abandoned, because “there is no god to care.” The colonnade’s reflection in the leaf-strewn water seems dreamlike and useless, “a dream lost among dreams,” a phrase repeated as if the thought keeps returning. The mood is hushed and melancholy, as though beauty, love, and the divine are all slowly fading into something passive, distant, and unreachable.
Autumn — Summary
I shall remember only these leaves falling Small and incessant in the still air, Yellow leaves on the dark green water resting And the marble Venus there-- Is she pointing to her breasts or trying to hide them? There is no god to care. The colonnade curves close to the leaf-strewn water And its reflection seems Lost in the mass of leaves and unavailing As a dream lost among dreams; The colonnade curves close to the leaf-strewn water A dream lost among dreams.