Now silent autumn fires the trees
Now silent autumn fires the treesTo slow flame, and calmly seesThe changing days burn down the skiesReflected in her quiet eyes,While about her as she kneelsCrouch the heavy-fruited fieldsAlong whose borders poplars runBurnished by the waning sun.Vineyards struggle up the hillToward the sky, dusty and still,Thick with heavy purple grapesAnd golden bursting fruits whose shapesAre full and hot with sun. Here eachSlow exploding oak and beechBlaze up about her dreaming knees,Flickering at her draperies.Each covert, a blaze of lightUpon horizons blueish whiteIs a torch, the pines are bronzeAnd stiffly stretch their sculptured frondsOver the depthless hushed ravineWherein their shadows change to green,Then to purple in the deepsWhere the waiting winter sleeps.
Words in this poem
- waning n.
- The act or process of waning, or decreasing.
- stiffly adv.
- In a stiff manner.
- depthless a.
- Having no depth; shallow.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Now silent autumn fires the trees is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Marble Faun, Wikisource; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Faulkner, Now silent autumn fires the trees, in The Marble Faun (1924), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/faulkner-marble-faun/section-13.html, id L28625.
Form and metre
Now silent autumn fires the trees is 24 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKKLL treesA · seesA · skiesB · eyesB · kneelsC · fieldsC · runD · sunD · hillE · stillE · grapesF · shapesF · eachG · beechG · kneesH · draperiesH · lightI · whiteI · bronzeJ · frondsJ · ravineK · greenK · deepsL · sleepsL
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Now silent autumn fires the trees | 8 | ·/˘/˘/·· |
| To slow flame, and calmly sees | 7 | ····/˘· |
| The changing days burn down the skies | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Reflected in her quiet eyes, | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| While about her as she kneels | 7 | ······· |
| Crouch the heavy-fruited fields | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Along whose borders poplars run | 8 | ˘/·/˘/˘· |
| Burnished by the waning sun. | 8 | /˘˘··/˘· |
| Vineyards struggle up the hill | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Toward the sky, dusty and still, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Thick with heavy purple grapes | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| And golden bursting fruits whose shapes | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Are full and hot with sun. Here each | 8 | ········ |
| Slow exploding oak and beech | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| Blaze up about her dreaming knees, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Flickering at her draperies. | 8 | /˘˘··/˘˘ |
| Each covert, a blaze of light | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Upon horizons blueish white | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| Is a torch, the pines are bronze | 7 | ······· |
| And stiffly stretch their sculptured fronds | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Over the depthless hushed ravine | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Wherein their shadows change to green, | 8 | ···/···· |
| Then to purple in the deeps | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Where the waiting winter sleeps. | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
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.