Analysis of Departing Summer

George Moses Horton 1779 (North Carolina) – 1883



When auburn Autumn mounts the stage,
And Summer fails her charms to yield,
Bleak nature turns another page,
To light the glories of the field.

At once the vale declines to bloom,
The forest smiles no longer gay;
Gardens are left without perfume,
The rose and lilly pine away.

The orchard bows her fruitless head,
As one divested of her store;
Or like a queen whose train has fled,
And left her sad to smile no more.

That bird which breath'd her vernal song,
And hopp'd along the flow'ry spray,
Now silent holds her warbling tongue,
Which dulcifies the feast of May.

But let each bitter have its sweet,
No change of nature is in vain;
'Tis just alternate cold and heat,
For time is pleasure mix'd with pain.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF XDXD GHGH
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 11010101 01010111 11010101 11010101 11010111 01011101 10110101 01010101 01010101 11010101 11011111 01011111 11110101 0101011 110101001 110111 11110111 11110101 11100101 11110111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 714
Words 131
Sentences 6
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 111
Words per stanza (avg) 26
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

40 sec read
121

George Moses Horton

George Moses Horton was an African-American poet and the first African American poet to be published in the Southern United States. His book was published in 1828 while he was still a slave; he remained a slave until he was emancipated late in the Civil War. more…

All George Moses Horton poems | George Moses Horton Books

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