Autumn Song (<hi rend="i">Musical Review </hi> text) DGR 1 By permission of the South African National Gallery At the Fall of the Leaf Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1877 (after) Alderman Library, University of Virginia Commentary
Introduction

The printed note accompanying the poem describes it as “the first of two unpublished poems” that the editor proposed to print. No second poem was published. The text was supplied to the periodical by Edward Dannreuther, to whom “a copy was given by the poet” and “one of whose finest songs (also unpublished) is founded on it”.

The poem had in fact been published several years earlier (in 1877).

Textual History: Composition

Textual History: Revision

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At the Fall of the Leaf Know'st thou not at the fall of the leaf How the heart feels a languid grief Laid on it for 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? & 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 the last for harvesting, And how death seems a comely thing In Autumn at the fall of the leaf? D. G. Rossetti