Lost: The Summer

Summary


"Lost: The Summer" is a short poem that treats the end of the season like a missing friend. The speaker asks where summer has gone, noticing the vanished roses, the withered vines, and the golden-rod edging the hedge. Playful questions give way to quiet longing as the speaker keeps a daily watch at the garden gate. Gentle rhymes and vivid garden images capture the ache of late summer, and a hopeful promise to wait closes the poem.

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Where has the summer gone?
She was here just a minute ago,
With roses and daisies
To whisper her praises—
And every one loved her so!

Has any one seen her about?
She must have gone off in the night!
And she took the best flowers
And the happiest hours,
And asked no one’s leave for her flight.

Have you noticed her steps in the grass?
The garden looks red where she went;
By the side of the hedge
There’s a golden-rod edge,
And the rose vines are withered and bent.

Do you think she will ever come back?
I shall watch every day at the gate
For the robins and clover,
Saying over and over:
“I know she will come, if I wait.”

Girl waiting at a garden gate among fading roses and golden-rod in the poem Lost: The Summer

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Credits

Raymond Mc Alden was an American poet whose verse often turned to nature and the changing seasons. In this poem, he gives summer a personality, imagining her slipping away at night without asking anyone's leave.