The Gathering Shades

I came across this only recently but it seems so pertinent to the season that I place an extract here. I suspect that others are experiencing the same emotions.

Comfort, content, delight

The ages' slow-bought gain

They shrivelled in a night,

Only ourselves remain

To face the naked days

In silent fortitude,

Through perils and dismays

Renewed and re-renewed.

Though all we made depart,

The old commandments stand:

"In patience keep your heart,

In strength lift up your hand."

Rudyard Kipling, "For All We Have and Are" (1917)