Morning Prayer -- Dante Rossetti, Jude 1

Autumn Song

Know'st thou not at the fall of the leaf
How the heart feels a languid grief
Laid on it for a covering,
And how sleep seems a goodly thing
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?

And how the swift beat of the brain
Falters because it is in vain,
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf
Knowest thou not? and how the chief
Of joys seems--not to suffer pain?

Know'st thou not at the fall of the leaf
How the soul feels like a dried sheaf
Bound up at length for harvesting,
And how death seems a comely thing
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?

-- Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Woe to them!
For they walk in the way of Cain,
and abandon themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error,
and perish in Korah's rebellion.

These are blemishes on your love feasts,
as they boldly carouse together, looking after themselves;
waterless clouds, carried along by winds;
fruitless trees in late autumn,
twice dead,
uprooted;

wild waves of the sea,
casting up the foam of their own shame;
wandering stars for whom
the nether gloom of darkness has been reserved for ever.

It was of these also that Enoch
in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied, saying,
"Behold, the Lord came with his holy myriads,
to execute judgment on all,
and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness
which they have committed in such an ungodly way,
and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners
have spoken against him."

--Jude 1:11-15