Analysis of October, 1863
Janet Hamilton 1795 (Scotland) – 1873
Month of storm, beat shocks and sheaves,
Withered flowers, and falling leaves,
Sullen clouds that darkly loom
Like the shadows of the tomb;
Looks the sun through murky haze
With a weird and watery gaze,
Lighting up the fields and streams,
Vanishing like lightning gleams.
Brooks that sung through mead and dingle
With a silvery tinkle tingle,
Foaming, turbid, rush along
With a rudely brawling song.
Robin of the noiseless wing
And ruddy vest, begins to sing
His wintry lay, and, flitting by,
Scans me with his bold, bright eye.
Sore, October, thou hast grieved me,
Ah! thine advent hath deceived me,
For thou cam'st with thunder crashing,
Deadly lightnings round thee flashing,
Furious gales, and drenching rains,
Sweeping o'er the ravished plains.
I would welcome thee, October,
Gracious, mild, serene, and sober;
With thy fields of russet hue,
With thy skies of hazy blue,
With thy sun, whose chastened glory
Tells brown Autumn's latest story.
Month of all the circling year,
To my soul's best feelings dear,
Sweet the balm thou oft hast poured
When my heart had quailed and cowered,
And shrunk into its inner cell
To bleed unseen. I may not tell
The bitter woes, the chilling fears,
The grief that lies 'too deep for tears,'
The venomed sting, whose burning smart
Thrills o'er the life-strings of my heart.
O then how sweet the soft solace,
To gaze upon thy saintly face,
So dreamy, tender, meek, and calm;
My spirit drank the soothing balm,
The sense of stillness and repose
That round thee like a halo flows.
Dear to you above all others,
You, my toiling, care-worn brothers,
Is the needed, blessed boon
Of your weekly afternoon,
When, with grateful heart and eyes,
'Neath our 'Indian summer' skies,
Our own October, forth ye go
Picking berry, nùt, and sloe.
While the woodlands dim and sere,
Their treasure shed to form the bier-
The death-bed of the waning year-
Think of your own so very near:
So learn, so live, that each October
Finds you more wise, more chaste, more sober.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIGGJJKKLLIIMMNNOOPQRRSTUUVVWWXXYYZZM1 MMKK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111101 10100101 1011101 101101 1011101 10101001 1010101 1001101 11111010 101001010 101101 1010101 101011 01010111 11010101 1111111 10101111 1111011 111111010 10101110 10010101 1010011 11101010 10101010 1111101 1111101 11111010 11101010 11101001 1111101 1011111 1111101 01011101 11011111 01010101 01111111 0111101 110011111 11110110 11011101 11010101 11010101 01110001 11110101 11101110 11101110 101011 111001 1110101 110100101 101010111 10101101 101101 11011101 01110101 11111101 111111010 111111110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,937 |
Words | 346 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 58 |
Lines Amount | 58 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,552 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 343 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:45 min read
- 72 Views
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"October, 1863" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/43048/october%2C-1863>.
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