Song Autumn
WHEN nuts behind the hazel-leafAre brown as the squirrel that hunts them free,And the fields are rich with the sun-burnt sheaf,’Mid the blue cornflower and the yellowing tree;And the farmer glows and beams in his glee;
O then is the season to wed thee a bride!Ere the garners are filled and the ale-cups foam;For a smiling hostess is the prideAnd flower of every Harvest Home.
Words in this poem
- cornflower n.
- A conspicuous wild flower (Centaurea Cyanus), growing in grainfields.
- yellowing n.
- The act or process of making yellow.
- glee n.
- Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
- hostess n.
- A female host; a woman who hospitably entertains guests at her house. [OE. hostesse, ostesse. See Host a landlord.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song Autumn is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems — Volume 1, Project Gutenberg ebook #1381; 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 Meredith, Song Autumn, in Modern Love, and Other Poems (1851–1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1381, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/meredith-poems/song-autumn.html, id L13160.
Form and metre
Song Autumn is 9 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 72%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 22% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABABB leafA · freeB · sheafA · treeB · gleeB
- 2 ABAB brideA · foamB · prideA · homeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| WHEN nuts behind the hazel-leaf | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Are brown as the squirrel that hunts them free, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| And the fields are rich with the sun-burnt sheaf, | 10 | ·········· |
| ’Mid the blue cornflower and the yellowing tree; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And the farmer glows and beams in his glee; | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| O then is the season to wed thee a bride! | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Ere the garners are filled and the ale-cups foam; | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| For a smiling hostess is the pride | 9 | ··/˘/˘··· |
| And flower of every Harvest Home. | 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.