--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: The tree is burning on the autumn noon…" description: "\"“The tree is burning on the autumn noon That builds each year the leaf and bark again. Though frost will strip it raw and barren soon, The rounding sea..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/096/donald-hall-10508_autumn_the-tree-is-burning-on-the-autumn-noon-t_154264.jpg" --- # The tree is burning on the autumn noon That builds each… ![“The tree is burning on the autumn noon That builds each year the leaf and bark again. Though frost will strip it raw and barren soon, The rounding season will restore and mend. Yet people are not mended, but go on, Accumulating memory and love. And so the wood we used to know is gone, Because the…” quote by Donald Hall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/096/donald-hall-10508_autumn_the-tree-is-burning-on-the-autumn-noon-t_154264.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/096/donald-hall-10508_autumn_the-tree-is-burning-on-the-autumn-noon-t_154264.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/096/donald-hall-10508_autumn_the-tree-is-burning-on-the-autumn-noon-t_154264.jpg) > ““The tree is burning on the autumn noon That builds each year the leaf and bark again. Though frost will strip it raw and barren soon, The rounding season will restore and mend. Yet people are not mended, but go on, Accumulating memory and love. And so the wood we used to know is gone, Because the years have taught us that we move. We have moved on, the Tamburlaines of then, To different Asias of our plundering. And though we sorrow not to know again A land or face we loved, yet we are king. The young are never robbed of innocence But given gold of love and memory. We live in wealth whose bounds exceed our sense, And when we die are full of memory. -from "September Ode”” [Donald Hall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donald-hall/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The poem reflects on cycles of destruction and renewal in nature and memory, noting that while trees regenerate, human memory and love persist despite loss. **In simple terms:** Nature renews; human memory endures. Key Takeaway Embrace change while honoring memory. Themes nature memory renewal Mood melancholic reflective Type poetic philosophical When to use this quote - grief counseling - environmental education - personal reflection Key Concepts cycle loss love Questions to Reflect On - What does renewal teach us? - How do we preserve memory? A Different Perspective May romanticize loss. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Autumn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/autumn/) [Burning Autumn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/burning-autumn-1710032/) [Memory And Love](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/memory-and-love-221973/) [Memory September](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/memory-september-1710031/) [September Ode](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/september-ode-1710033/) [Sorrow Know](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sorrow-know-1548496/) [Trees](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/trees/) ## Related quotes > [Don't be ashamed to weep; 'tis right to grieve. Tears are only water, and flowers, trees, and fruit cannot grow without water. But there…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/don-t-be-ashamed-to-weep-tis-right-to-grieve-tears-are-only-water-and/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“Some folks locked the doors of their hearts when they lost someone. Others kept the doors and the windows open, letting memory and love…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jason-mott/some-folks-locked-the-doors-of-their-hearts-when-they-lost-someone/) [Jason Mott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jason-mott/) > [A wounded heart will heal in time, and when it does, the memory and love of our lost ones is sealed inside to comfort…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-jacques/a-wounded-heart-will-heal-in-time-and-when-it-does-the-memory-and/) [Brian Jacques](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-jacques/) > [Sometimes I forget to count my blessings when all I see are trials and tribulations, but somehow even in the darkest sorrow I know…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/sometimes-i-forget-to-count-my-blessings-when-all-i-see-are-trials/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“As I see it, people who experience equal amounts of sadness and happiness in their lives must be incredibly blessed. Some people lead a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/masaji-ishikawa/as-i-see-it-people-who-experience-equal-amounts-of-sadness-and/) [Masaji Ishikawa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/masaji-ishikawa/) > [I just can't sit back and wallow, In my own sorrow, but I know one fact: I'll be one tough act to follow.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eminem/i-just-can-t-sit-back-and-wallow-in-my-own-sorrow-but-i-know-one-fact/) [Eminem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eminem/) > [“It's all his fancy, that: he hasn't got no sorrow, you know. Come on!”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-carroll/it-s-all-his-fancy-that-he-hasn-t-got-no-sorrow-you-know-come-on/) [Lewis Carroll](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-carroll/) > [There's an answer, if you reach into your soul, and the sorrow that you know will melt away.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mariah-carey/there-s-an-answer-if-you-reach-into-your-soul-and-the-sorrow-that-you/) [Mariah Carey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mariah-carey/) > [“Katja kneeled in the Parisian streets, shaking and weak from the pain in her head and heart. It had come a second ago—a vague…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amanda-m-lyons/katja-kneeled-in-the-parisian-streets-shaking-and-weak-from-the-pain/) [Amanda M. Lyons](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amanda-m-lyons/) > [People who experience great happiness have also experienced great sorrow. They know the value of it and its importance.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/people-who-experience-great-happiness-have-also-experienced-great/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [there does seem to me something sad in life. It is hard to say what it is. I don't mean the sorrow that we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-mansfield/there-does-seem-to-me-something-sad-in-life-it-is-hard-to-say-what-it/) [Katherine Mansfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-mansfield/) > [He who has not looked on Sorrow will never see Joy. \[for without sorrow how would you know what joy is? Contrast provides peceptive…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/khalil-gibran/he-who-has-not-looked-on-sorrow-will-never-see-joy-for-without-sorrow/) [Khalil Gibran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/khalil-gibran/) > [Sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely , racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just being alive is a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agatha-christie/sometimes-been-wildly-despairingly-acutely-racked-with-sorrow-but/) [Agatha Christie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/agatha-christie/) > [“Procrastination is my sin. It brings me naught but sorrow. I know that I should stop it. In fact, I will--tomorrow”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gloria-pitzer/procrastination-is-my-sin-it-brings-me-naught-but-sorrow-i-know-that/) [Gloria Pitzer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gloria-pitzer/) > [... I have read in your face, as plain as if it was a book, that but for some trouble and sorrow we should…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-dickens/i-have-read-in-your-face-as-plain-as-if-it-was-a-book-that-but-for/) [Charles Dickens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-dickens/) ## More by Donald Hall > [“When a long-desired baby is born, what joy! More happiness than we find in sex, more than we take in success, revenge, or wealth.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donald-hall/when-a-long-desired-baby-is-born-what-joy-more-happiness-than-we-find/) [Donald Hall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donald-hall/) > [The greatest kindness would put a bullet in his bright eye.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donald-hall/the-greatest-kindness-would-put-a-bullet-in-his-bright-eye/) [Donald Hall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donald-hall/) > [I wish you were that birch rising from the clump behind you, and I the gray oak alongside.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donald-hall/i-wish-you-were-that-birch-rising-from-the-clump-behind-you-and-i-the/) [Donald Hall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donald-hall/) > [“Death of a part is agony - from "The Red Branch”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donald-hall/death-of-a-part-is-agony-from-the-red-branch/) [Donald Hall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donald-hall/) > [“When I was sixteen I read ten books a week: E.E. Cummings, William Faulkner, Henry James, Hart Crane, John Steinbeck. I thought I progressed…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donald-hall/when-i-was-sixteen-i-read-ten-books-a-week-e-e-cummings-william/) [Donald Hall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donald-hall/) > [Baseball, because of its continuity over the space of America and the time of America, is a place where memory gathers.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donald-hall/baseball-because-of-its-continuity-over-the-space-of-america-and-the/) [Donald Hall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donald-hall/) > [Sweet death, small son, our instrument Of immortality, Your cries and hungers document Our bodily decay.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donald-hall/sweet-death-small-son-our-instrument-of-immortality-your-cries-and/) [Donald Hall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donald-hall/) > [For a hundred and fifty years, in the pasture of dead horses, roots of pine trees pushed through the pale curves of your ribs,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donald-hall/for-a-hundred-and-fifty-years-in-the-pasture-of-dead-horses-roots-of/) [Donald Hall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donald-hall/) > [The pleasure we feel, reading a poem, is our assurance of its integrity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donald-hall/the-pleasure-we-feel-reading-a-poem-is-our-assurance-of-its-integrity/) [Donald Hall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donald-hall/) > [“As Henry Moore carved or modelled his sculpture every day, he strove to surpass Donatello 4. and failed, but woke the next morning elated…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donald-hall/as-henry-moore-carved-or-modelled-his-sculpture-every-day-he-strove/) [Donald Hall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donald-hall/) > [Can build plane... Delivery about three months.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donald-hall/can-build-plane-delivery-about-three-months/) [Donald Hall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donald-hall/) > [In football they measure forty-yard sprints. Nobody runs forty yards in basketball. Maybe you run the ninety-four feet of the court; then you stop,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donald-hall/in-football-they-measure-forty-yard-sprints-nobody-runs-forty-yards/) [Donald Hall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donald-hall/) > [I don't know where a poem comes from until after I've lived with it a long time. I've a notion that a poem comes…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donald-hall/i-don-t-know-where-a-poem-comes-from-until-after-i-ve-lived-with-it-a/) [Donald Hall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donald-hall/) > [“I read poems for the pleasure of the mouth. My heart is in my mouth, and the sound of poetry is the way in."…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donald-hall/i-read-poems-for-the-pleasure-of-the-mouth-my-heart-is-in-my-mouth/) [Donald Hall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donald-hall/) > [“Ox Cart Man In October of the year, he counts potatoes dug from the brown field, counting the seed, counting the cellar's portion out,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donald-hall/ox-cart-man-in-october-of-the-year-he-counts-potatoes-dug-from-the/) [Donald Hall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donald-hall/) [Explore all 65 Donald Hall quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donald-hall/) ## More Autumn quotes > [This, at last, was where things were as they ought to be. Everything was in its place -- the tree, the earth underneath, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-liedloff/this-at-last-was-where-things-were-as-they-ought-to-be-everything-was/) [Jean Liedloff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-liedloff/) > [The American spring is by no means so agreeable as the American autumn; both move with faltering step, and slow; but this lingering pace,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frances-trollope/the-american-spring-is-by-no-means-so-agreeable-as-the-american/) [Frances Trollope](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frances-trollope/) > [“Flowers that had bloomed brilliant from spring through autumn blackened under the killing frost.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nora-roberts/flowers-that-had-bloomed-brilliant-from-spring-through-autumn/) [Nora Roberts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nora-roberts/) > [“FALL I've never liked orange not even a hint of yellow though that doesn't mean I'm derange, you know. but it's still a riddle…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kynna-claire/fall-i-ve-never-liked-orange-not-even-a-hint-of-yellow-though-that/) [Kynna Claire](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kynna-claire/) > [The trees change their voices in autumn as well as their shapes. No longer do they whisper to one another in muffled tones as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/patience-strong/the-trees-change-their-voices-in-autumn-as-well-as-their-shapes-no/) [Patience Strong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/patience-strong/) > [The measured blood beats out the year's delay.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/louise-bogan/the-measured-blood-beats-out-the-year-s-delay/) [Louise Bogan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/louise-bogan/) > [You know how this is: if I look at the crystal moon, at the red branch of the slow autumn at my window, if…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pablo-neruda/you-know-how-this-is-if-i-look-at-the-crystal-moon-at-the-red-branch/) [Pablo Neruda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pablo-neruda/) > [“The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last for ever. Even on the most beautiful days in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-crickets-felt-it-was-their-duty-to-warn-everybody-that-summertime/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [He found himself wondering at times, especially in the autumn, about the wild lands, and strange visions of mountains that he had never seen…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/he-found-himself-wondering-at-times-especially-in-the-autumn-about/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“Easter blessings All life’s sacrifices like autumn leaves awaken our senses and power to love and be whole Our Mother Earth, Our Father Sky…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ramon-ravenswood/easter-blessings-all-life-s-sacrifices-like-autumn-leaves-awaken-our/) [Ramon Ravenswood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ramon-ravenswood/) > [The lush green of the fields became a rich gold that swayed sturdily under the wind and fell at last before the hands of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martha-ostenso/the-lush-green-of-the-fields-became-a-rich-gold-that-swayed-sturdily/) [Martha Ostenso](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martha-ostenso/) > [The ascent of any route begins, in dreams at least, the autumn before. Our minds ring, involuntarily, with the alluring names of mountains, aiguilles,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gaston-rebuffat/the-ascent-of-any-route-begins-in-dreams-at-least-the-autumn-before/) [Gaston Rebuffat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gaston-rebuffat/) > [“Autumn eats its leaf out of my hand: we are friends. From the nuts we shell time and we teach it to walk: then…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-celan/autumn-eats-its-leaf-out-of-my-hand-we-are-friends-from-the-nuts-we/) [Paul Celan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-celan/) > [While cares will drop off like autumn leaves.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-muir/while-cares-will-drop-off-like-autumn-leaves/) [John Muir](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-muir/) > [We must learn to do economic work from all who know how, no matter who they are. We must esteem them as teachers, learning…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mao-zedong/we-must-learn-to-do-economic-work-from-all-who-know-how-no-matter-who/) [Mao Zedong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mao-zedong/) [Browse all 1,210 Autumn quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/autumn/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“The tree is burning on the autumn noon That builds each year the leaf and bark again. Though frost will strip it raw and barren soon, The rounding season will restore and mend. Yet people are not mended, but go on, Accumulating memory and love. And so the wood we used to know is gone, Because the years have taught us that we move. We have moved on, the Tamburlaines of then, To different Asias of our plundering. And though we sorrow not to know again A land or face we loved, yet we are king. The young are never robbed of innocence But given gold of love and memory. 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