Autumn
Thou comest, Autumn, heralded by the rain,With banners, by great gales incessant fanned,Brighter than brightest silks of Samarcand,And stately oxen harnessed to thy wain!Thou standest, like imperial Charlemagne,Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal handOutstretched with benedictions o'er the land,Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspendedSo long beneath the heaven's o'er-hanging eaves;Thy steps are by the farmer's prayers attended;Like flames upon an altar shine the sheaves;And, following thee, in thy ovation splendid,Thine almoner, the wind, scatters the golden leaves!
Words in this poem
- wain n.
- A four-wheeled vehicle for the transportation of goods, produce, etc.; a wagon. [OE. wain, AS. wægn; akin to D. & G. wagen, OHG. wagan, Icel. & Sw. vagn, Dan. vogn, and E. way. Way, Weigh, and cf. Wagon.]
- ovation n.
- A lesser kind of triumph allowed to a commander for an easy, bloodless victory, or a victory over slaves. [L. ovatio, fr. ovare to exult, rejoice, triumph in an ovation; cf. Gr. ovation.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Autumn is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Project Gutenberg ebook #1365; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Autumn, in The Complete Poetical Works (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/autumn-2.html, id L17543.
Form and metre
Autumn is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCDCD, the pattern of the Italian sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.4 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other Italian sonnets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBAABBACDCDCD rainA · fannedB · samarcandB · wainA · charlemagneA · handB · landB · domainA · suspendedC · eavesD · attendedC · sheavesD · splendidC · leavesD
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Thou comest, Autumn, heralded by the rain, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| With banners, by great gales incessant fanned, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Brighter than brightest silks of Samarcand, | 9 | /·/˘····· |
| And stately oxen harnessed to thy wain! | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Thou standest, like imperial Charlemagne, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘· |
| Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Outstretched with benedictions o'er the land, | 10 | ˘/··˘/˘··· |
| Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain! | 10 | /˘······˘/ |
| Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended | 11 | ·····/˘·˘/˘ |
| So long beneath the heaven's o'er-hanging eaves; | 11 | ·····/˘·/˘· |
| Thy steps are by the farmer's prayers attended; | 11 | ·····/˘·˘/˘ |
| Like flames upon an altar shine the sheaves; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And, following thee, in thy ovation splendid, | 11 | ·/˘···˘/˘/˘ |
| Thine almoner, the wind, scatters the golden leaves! | 11 | ·/˘··/˘·/˘· |
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.