Autumn's Gold
Along the tops of all the yellow trees,The golden-yellow trees, the sunshine lies;And where the leaves are gone, long rays surpriseLone depths of thicket with their brightnesses;And through the woods, all waste of many a breeze,Cometh more joy of light for Poet's eyes--Green fields lying yellow underneath the skies,And shining houses and blue distances.
By the roadside, like rocks of golden oreThat make the western river-beds so bright,The briar and the furze are all alight!Perhaps the year will be so fair no more,But now the fallen, falling leaves are gay,And autumn old has shone into a Day!
Words in this poem
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
- roadside n.
- Land adjoining a road or highway; the part of a road or highway that borders the traveled part. Also used ajectively.
- briar n.
- A plant with a slender woody stem bearing stout prickles; especially, species of Rosa, Rubus, and Smilax. [OE. brere, brer, AS. brer, brær; cf. Ir. briar prickle, thorn, brier, pin, Gael. preas bush, brier, W. prys, prysg.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Autumn's Gold is in the public domain. This text is taken from The poetical works of George MacDonald in two volumes — Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #9984; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George MacDonald, Autumn's Gold, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/autumn-s-gold.html, id L22405.
Form and metre
Autumn's Gold is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See 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 ABBAABBA treesA · liesB · surpriseB · brightnessesA · breezeA · eyesB · skiesB · distancesA
- 2 ABBACC oreA · brightB · alightB · moreA · gayC · dayC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Along the tops of all the yellow trees, | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| The golden-yellow trees, the sunshine lies; | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/·· |
| And where the leaves are gone, long rays surprise | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Lone depths of thicket with their brightnesses; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| And through the woods, all waste of many a breeze, | 10 | ·······/·· |
| Cometh more joy of light for Poet's eyes-- | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Green fields lying yellow underneath the skies, | 11 | ··/˘/˘·˘/·· |
| And shining houses and blue distances. | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘˘ |
| By the roadside, like rocks of golden ore | 10 | ··/····/˘· |
| That make the western river-beds so bright, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| The briar and the furze are all alight! | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Perhaps the year will be so fair no more, | 10 | ˘/········ |
| But now the fallen, falling leaves are gay, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And autumn old has shone into a Day! | 10 | ·/˘······· |
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.