Lord? It is time. Giant summer’s at an end.
Lay down your shadows on the sundials;
Across the fields unleash a cooler wind.

Tell the last of the fruit to fill and ripen.
Send them two more warm, southerly days,
Push them toward completion then, and chase
Last sweetnesses into the thickened wine.

—Rilke, Paris, 21 September 1902

Art by Franz Dvorak.