Autumn Sorrow
Ah me! too soon the autumn comesAmong these purple-plaintive hills!Too soon among the forest gumsPremonitory flame she spills,Bleak, melancholy flame that kills.
Her white fogs veil the morn, that rimsWith wet the moonflower's elfin moons;And, like exhausted starlight, dimsThe last slim lily-disk; and swoonsWith scents of hazy afternoons.
Her gray mists haunt the sunset skies,And build the west's cadaverous fires,Where Sorrow sits with lonely eyes,And hands that wake an ancient lyre,Beside the ghost of dead Desire.
Words in this poem
- premonitory a.
- Giving previous warning or notice; as, premonitory symptoms of disease. [L. praemonitorius.]
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- elfin a.
- Relating to elves.
- starlight n.
- The light given by the stars.
- hazy a.
- Thick with haze; somewhat obscured with haze; not clear or transparent. [From Haze, n.]
- cadaverous a.
- Having the appearance or color of a dead human body; pale; ghastly; as, a cadaverous look. [L. cadaverosus.]
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Autumn Sorrow is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #7796; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Madison Julius Cawein, Autumn Sorrow, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/autumn-sorrow.html, id L10917.
Form and metre
Autumn Sorrow is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABB comesA · hillsB · gumsA · spillsB · killsB
- 2 ABABB rimsA · moonsB · dimsA · swoonsB · afternoonsB
- 3 AAA-- skiesA · firesA · eyesA · lyre · desire
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Ah me! too soon the autumn comes | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Among these purple-plaintive hills! | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Too soon among the forest gums | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Premonitory flame she spills, | 8 | ˘/˘˘˘··· |
| Bleak, melancholy flame that kills. | 8 | ·/˘·˘··· |
| Her white fogs veil the morn, that rims | 8 | ········ |
| With wet the moonflower's elfin moons; | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And, like exhausted starlight, dims | 8 | ··˘/˘/·· |
| The last slim lily-disk; and swoons | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| With scents of hazy afternoons. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Her gray mists haunt the sunset skies, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| And build the west's cadaverous fires, | 9 | ····˘/˘˘/ |
| Where Sorrow sits with lonely eyes, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And hands that wake an ancient lyre, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Beside the ghost of dead Desire. | 9 | ˘/····˘/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.