Welcome back to the Daily Poem here in the Close Freeds Podcast Network. I'm David Curry.

Today's poem is by Thomas Hardy, an English novelist and poet who lived from 1840 to 1928.

He was a Victorian realist, if you're interested in such things, and he was especially influenced by

romanticism, especially William Wordsworth. There is, of course, much research that can be done

about his life if you are interested. His novels include Tesla the Dubervilles, Jude the Obscure,

far from the Madding Crowd, Mayor of Castorbridge. He wrote many poems, a very well-regarded writer from

the 18th and from the 19th and 20th century, rather. And the poem that I'm going to read today is

appropriate for this particular day of this particular month. It is called Last Week in October.

So this is how it goes.

The trees are undressing and fling in many places on the gray road, the roof, the windowsill,

their radiant robes and ribbons and yellow laces.

A leaf each second so is flung at will. Here, there, another and

another, still and still. A spider's web has caught one while downcoming that stays there dangling

when the rest pass on. Like a suspended criminal hangs he,

mumming in golden garb,

while one yet green,

high, yawn, trembles,

as fearing such a fate for himself anon.

This is one of those poems that is formal in a way that you don't necessarily notice, I think, anyway.

It's very interesting in that way.

So we got two stanzas here, right?

But we have A, B, A, B for each stanza. So each stanza's got five lines and we've got that rhyme scheme.

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