The old moon is tarnished
With smoke of the flood,
The dead leaves are varnished
With color like blood,
A treacherous smiler 5
With teeth white as milk,
A savage beguiler
In sheathings of silk,
The sea creeps to pillage,
She leaps on her prey; 10
A child of the village
Was murdered to-day.
She came up to meet him
In a smooth golden cloak,
She choked him and beat him 15
To death, for a joke.
Her bright locks were tangled,
She shouted for joy,
With one hand she strangled
A strong little boy. 20
Now in silence she lingers
Beside him all night
To wash her long fingers
In silvery light.
Why does the poet describe the leaves as having a "color like blood" in the first stanza?
A) to make the reader contemplate his or her own guilt
Eliminate
B) to implicate the boy in his own murder in this poem
C) to add an element of comedy to an otherwise drab poem
D) to add to the murderous and forbidding tone of the poem