Illustration for Eliza Cook's "Dead Leaves" by John Sliegh

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Illustration for Eliza Cook's "Dead Leaves"

John Sliegh

1863

Wood engraving by the Brothers Dalziel

5 x 4 inches

Cook 377 (Illustrator named in the List of Illustrations, p. vi)

See below for commentary.

Image identified, scanned and contributed by Brian Butterly, and added, with a brief commentary, by Jacqueline Banerjee.

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DEAD LEAVES.

I never cared for autumn in the happy days gone by,
When all the leaves came whirling down that curtain’d out the sky;
The lady-birch might lose her charms, so woo’d in summer's prime,
And every giant arm be stripp’d that I had loved to climb.

Now I stand and see the boughs of Human Life get bare,
I hear the wail of Sorrow's breath through branches bright and fair;
And down come leaves of Joy and Love, all thickly strewn around,
And blossoms that were topmost borne are on the lowest ground.

But no laugh is on my lip, no light is on my brow;
I cannot smile as once I did, — I am not dancing now.
Heart deep in dead leaves, Spring will come in vain;
For the trees that now are bare, will ne'er be green again.

For this melancholy poem, John Sliegh has managed to convey both the lushness of the trees in their prime, and the suggestion of bare boughs. The trees themselves will surely come into leaf, and blossom, again; but for the speaker here, at least in the present mood of despair, no renewal is expected.

Links to Related Material

Bibliography

Cook, Eliza. Poems of Eliza Cook. London: Routledge, Warne, & Routledge, 1861. Internet Archive, from a copy in the Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University. Web. 4 January 2023.

Created 4 January 2024