More lifted up than I

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I r o n c l a d

Elmwood Cemetery

Columbia, South Carolina

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I have been treading on leaves all day until I am

autumn-tired.

God knows all the color and form of leaves I have 

trodden on and mired.

Perhaps I have put forth too much strength and been 

too fierce from fear.

I have safely trodden underfoot the leaves of 

another year.

All summer long they were overhead, more lifted up

than I.

To come to their final place in earth they had to

pass me by.

All summer long I thought I heard them threatening

under their breath.

And when they came it seemed with a will to carry

me with them to death.

They spoke to the fugitive in my heart as if it were

leaf to leaf.

They tapped at my eyelids and touched my lips with

an invitation to grief.

But it was no reason I had to go because they

had to go.

Now up, my knee, to keep on top of another year

of snow.

~Robert Frost~

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