Analysis of My Autumn Walk
William Cullen Bryant 1794 (Cummington) – 1878 (New York City)
ON woodlands ruddy with autumn
The amber sunshine lies;
I look on the beauty round me,
And tears come into my eyes.
For the wind that sweeps the meadows
Blows out of the far Southwest,
Where our gallant men are fighting,
And the gallant dead are at rest.
The golden-rod is leaning,
And the purple aster waves,
In a breeze from the land of battles,
A breath from the land of graves.
Full fast the leaves are dropping
Before that wandering breath;
As fast, on the field of battle,
Our brethren fall in death.
Beautiful over my pathway
The forest spoils are shed;
They are spotting the grassy hillocks
With purple and gold and red.
Beautiful is the death-sleep
Of those who bravely fight
In their country’s holy quarrel,
And perish for the Right.
But who shall comfort the living,
The light of whose homes is gone:
The bride that, early widowed,
Lives broken-hearted on;
The matron whose sons are lying
In graves on a distant shore;
The maiden, whose promised husband
Comes back from the war no more?
I look on the peaceful dwellings
Whose windows glimmer in sight,
With croft and garden and orchard,
That bask in the mellow light;
And I know that, when our couriers
With news of victory come,
They will bring a bitter message
Of hopeless grief to some.
Again I turn to the woodlands,
And shudder as I see
The mock-grape’s blood-red banner
Hung out on the cedar-tree;
And I think of days of slaughter,
And the night-sky red with flames,
On the Chattahoochee’s meadows,
And the wasted banks of the James.
Oh, for the fresh spring-season,
When the groves are in their prime,
And far away in the future
Is the frosty autumn-time!
Oh, for that better season,
When the pride of the foe shall yield,
And the hosts of God and Freedom
March back from the well-won field;
And the matron shall clasp her first-born
With tears of joy and pride;
And the scarred and war-worn lover
Shall claim his promised bride!
The leaves are swept from the branches;
But the living buds are there,
With folded flower and foliage,
To sprout in a kinder air.
Scheme | ABCB DEFE FGXG FHIH XJBJ XKIK FXXX FLXL XKXK XAXA XCMC MNDN OPMP OQAQ XRMR XSXS |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (94%) |
Metre | 1110110 01011 11101011 0110111 1011101 111011 110101110 00101111 0101110 0010101 001101110 0110111 1101110 0111001 11101110 1010101 1001011 010111 11100101 1100101 1001011 111101 0111010 010101 11110010 0111111 0111010 110101 01011110 0110101 01011010 1110111 11101010 1101001 11010010 1100101 0111110100 1111001 11101010 110111 0111101 010111 0111110 1110101 01111110 0011111 1011 00101101 1101110 1011011 01010010 1010101 1111010 10110111 00111010 1110111 001011011 111101 00101110 111101 01111010 1010111 11010010 1100101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,990 |
Words | 367 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 16 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 64 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 100 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:50 min read
- 115 Views
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"My Autumn Walk" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/40306/my-autumn-walk>.
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