Analysis of Autumn
William Watson 1858 (Burley in Wharfedale) – 1935 (Rottingdean)
Thou burden of all songs the earth hath sung,
Thou retrospect in Time's reverted eyes,
Thou metaphor of everything that dies,
That dies ill-starred, or dies beloved and young
And therefore blest and wise,-
O be less beautiful, or be less brief,
Thou tragic splendour, strange, and full of fear!
In vain her pageant shall the Summer rear?
At thy mute signal, leaf by golden leaf,
Crumbles the gorgeous year.
Ah, ghostly as remembered mirth, the tale
Of Summer's bloom, the legend of the Spring!
And thou, too, flutterest an impatient wing,
Thou presence yet more fugitive and frail,
Thou most unbodied thing,
Whose very being is thy going hence,
And passage and departure all thy theme;
Whose life doth still a splendid dying seem,
And thou at height of thy magnificence
A figment and a dream.
Stilled is the virgin rapture that was June,
And cold is August's panting heart of fire;
And in the storm-dismantled forest-choir
For thine own elegy thy winds attune
Their wild and wizard lyre:
And poignant grows the charm of thy decay,
The pathos of thy beauty, and the sting,
Thou parable of greatness vanishing!
For me, thy woods of gold and skies of grey
With speech fantastic ring.
For me, to dreams resigned, there come and go,
'Twixt mountains draped and hooded night and morn,
Elusive notes in wandering wafture borne,
From undiscoverable lips that blow
An immaterial horn;
And spectral seem thy winter-boding trees,
Thy ruinous bowers and drifted foliage wet-
Past and Future in sad bridal met,
O voice of everything that perishes,
And soul of all regret!
Scheme | ABBABCDDCD EFFEFXGGBG HIIHXJFFJF KLLKLXMMBM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101110111 110010101 110011011 1111110101 01101 1111001111 110110111 0101010101 1111011101 100101 1101010101 1101010101 011110101 1101110001 1111 1101011101 0100010111 1111010101 0111111 010001 1101010111 01110101110 00010101010 1111001101 110101 0101011101 0101110001 1100110100 1111110111 110101 1111011101 1101010101 0101010011 11111 101001 01111011 110010010101 101001101 1111011 011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,527 |
Words | 270 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 10, 10, 10 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 309 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 67 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:21 min read
- 44 Views
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"Autumn" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/41983/autumn>.
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