Autumn Years
While life's April blossom blew,What I willed I then might do,Lust and law seemed comrades true.As I listed, unresisted,Hither, thither, could I play,And my wanton flesh obey.
When life's autumn days decline,Thus to live, a libertine,Fancy-free as thoughts incline,Manhood's older age and colderNow forbids; removes, destroysAll those ways of wonted joys.
Age with admonition wiseThus doth counsel and advise,While her voice within me cries:"For repenting and relentingThere is room; forgiveness fallsOn all contrite prodigals!"
I will seek a better mind;Change, correct, and leave behindWhat I did with purpose blind:From vice sever, with endeavourYield my soul to serious things,Seek the joy that virtue brings.
Words in this poem
- lust v. i.
- To list; to like. [AS. lystan. See Lust, n., and cf. List to choose.]
- unresisted a.
- Not resisted; unopposed. Bentley.
- wonted a.
- Accustomed; customary; usual.
- contrite a.
- Thoroughly bruised or broken. [L. contritus bruised, p. p. of contrere to grind, bruise; con- + terere to rub, grind: cf. F. contrit See Trite.]
- endeavour v. t.
- To exert physical or intellectual strength for the attainment of; to use efforts to effect; to strive to achieve or reach; to try; to attempt. [OE. endevor; pref. en- + dever, devoir, duty, F. devoir: cf. F. se mettre en devoir de faire quelque chose to try to do a thing, to go about it. See Devoir, Deb]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Autumn Years is in the public domain. This text is taken from Wine, Women, and Song Mediaeval Latin Students' songs; Now first translated into English verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #18044; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Addington Symonds, Autumn Years, in Wine, Women and Song (1884), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18044, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/symonds-wine-women/autumn-years.html, id L11866.
Form and metre
Autumn Years is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 58% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic 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 AAA-BB blewA · doA · trueA · unresisted · playB · obeyB
- 2 A-A-BB declineA · libertine · inclineA · colder · destroysB · joysB
- 3 AAA-BB wiseA · adviseA · criesA · relenting · fallsB · prodigalsB
- 4 AAA-BB mindA · behindA · blindA · endeavour · thingsB · bringsB
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| While life's April blossom blew, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| What I willed I then might do, | 7 | ······· |
| Lust and law seemed comrades true. | 7 | ····/·· |
| As I listed, unresisted, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Hither, thither, could I play, | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| And my wanton flesh obey. | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| When life's autumn days decline, | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Thus to live, a libertine, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Fancy-free as thoughts incline, | 7 | /˘···˘/ |
| Manhood's older age and colder | 8 | /·/˘··/˘ |
| Now forbids; removes, destroys | 7 | ·˘/˘/˘/ |
| All those ways of wonted joys. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Age with admonition wise | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Thus doth counsel and advise, | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| While her voice within me cries: | 7 | ······· |
| "For repenting and relenting | 8 | ·˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| There is room; forgiveness falls | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| On all contrite prodigals!" | 7 | ··˘//˘˘ |
| I will seek a better mind; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Change, correct, and leave behind | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| What I did with purpose blind: | 7 | ····/˘· |
| From vice sever, with endeavour | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| Yield my soul to serious things, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Seek the joy that virtue brings. | 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.