Summer's lovely meadows green,
Sylvan shades and fairy bowers,
Dewy dawns and eves serene,
Balmy air and pretty flowers,-
All these sweets will soon be gone,
Fading, dying one by one.

Autumn breathes a colder breath,
Warning us of winter's chill-
Nature passes on to death,
Beautiful in dying still,-
Cheeks aglowing in decay,
Blushing as they fade away.

Could there be a grander sight,
Than our forests' rainbow tints,
Glancing, changing in the light,
Fairer far than colour'd prints,-
Surely death cannot be grief,
To that rosy maple leaf.

Emblem of my fleeting days,
Verdant, change, frail and brief,-
O! that as my strength decays,
I may show the maple leaf-
Fair in every passing stage,
Still more beautiful in age.