Autumn in the Garden
When the frosty kiss of Autumn in the darkMakes its markOn the flowers, and the misty morning grievesOver fallen leaves;Then my olden garden, where the golden soilThrough the toilOf a hundred years is mellow, rich, and deep,Whispers in its sleep.
'Mid the crumpled beds of marigold and phlox,Where the boxBorders with its glossy green the ancient walks,There's a voice that talksOf the human hopes that bloomed and withered hereYear by year,--And the dreams that brightened all the labouring hours.Fading as the flowers.
Yet the whispered story does not deepen grief;But reliefFor the loneliness of sorrow seems to flowFrom the Long-Ago,When I think of other lives that learned, like mine,To resign,And remember that the sadness of the fallComes alike to all.
What regrets, what longings for the lost were theirs IAnd what prayersFor the silent strength that nerves us to endureThings we cannot cure!Pacing up and down the garden where they paced,I have tracedAll their well-worn paths of patience, till I findComfort in my mind.
Faint and far away their ancient griefs appear:Yet how nearIs the tender voice, the careworn, kindly face,Of the human race!Let us walk together in the garden, dearest heart,--Not apart!They who know the sorrows other lives have knownNever walk alone.
Words in this poem
- olden a.
- Old; ancient; as, the olden time.
- phlox n.
- A genus of American herbs, having showy red, white, or purple flowers. Phlox worm (Zoöl.), the larva of an American moth (Heliothis phloxiphaga). It is destructive to phloxes.
- labouring a.
- That labors; performing labor; esp., performing coarse, heavy work, not requiring skill also, set apart for labor; as, laboring days.
- fading n.
- An Irish dance; also, the burden of a song.
- deepen v. t.
- To make deep or deeper; to increase the depth of; to sink lower; as, to deepen a well or a channel.
- loneliness n.
- The condition of being lonely; solitude; seclusion.
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
- careworn a.
- Worn or burdened with care; as, careworn look or face.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Autumn in the Garden is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Henry Van Dyke, Project Gutenberg ebook #16229; 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 Van Dyke, Autumn in the Garden, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/autumn-in-the-garden.html, id L22859.
Form and metre
Autumn in the Garden is 40 lines in 5 stanzas of 8 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABBCCDD, complete in 3 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in trochaic hexameter.
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 AABBCCDD darkA · markA · grievesB · leavesB · soilC · toilC · deepD · sleepD
- 2 --AABBCC phlox · box · walksA · talksA · hereB · yearB · hoursC · flowersC
- 3 AABBCCDD griefA · reliefA · flowB · agoB · mineC · resignC · fallD · allD
- 4 --AABBCC i · prayers · endureA · cureA · pacedB · tracedB · findC · mindC
- 5 AABBCCDD appearA · nearA · faceB · raceB · heartC · apartC · knownD · aloneD
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When the frosty kiss of Autumn in the dark | 11 | ··/˘··/˘··· |
| Makes its mark | 3 | ··· |
| On the flowers, and the misty morning grieves | 10 | ··/··/˘/˘· |
| Over fallen leaves; | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Then my olden garden, where the golden soil | 11 | ··/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Through the toil | 3 | ··· |
| Of a hundred years is mellow, rich, and deep, | 11 | ··/˘··/˘··· |
| Whispers in its sleep. | 5 | /˘··· |
| 'Mid the crumpled beds of marigold and phlox, | 11 | ··/˘··/˘··· |
| Where the box | 3 | ··· |
| Borders with its glossy green the ancient walks, | 11 | /˘··/˘··/˘· |
| There's a voice that talks | 5 | ····· |
| Of the human hopes that bloomed and withered here | 11 | ··/˘····/˘· |
| Year by year,-- | 3 | ··· |
| And the dreams that brightened all the labouring hours. | 11 | ····/˘··/˘/ |
| Fading as the flowers. | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| Yet the whispered story does not deepen grief; | 11 | ··/˘/˘··/˘· |
| But relief | 3 | ·˘/ |
| For the loneliness of sorrow seems to flow | 10 | ··/˘·/˘··· |
| From the Long-Ago, | 5 | ···˘/ |
| When I think of other lives that learned, like mine, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| To resign, | 3 | ·˘/ |
| And remember that the sadness of the fall | 11 | ·˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Comes alike to all. | 5 | ·˘/·· |
| What regrets, what longings for the lost were theirs I | 12 | ·˘/·/˘······ |
| And what prayers | 3 | ··· |
| For the silent strength that nerves us to endure | 11 | ··/˘·····˘/ |
| Things we cannot cure! | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Pacing up and down the garden where they paced, | 11 | /˘····/˘··· |
| I have traced | 3 | ··· |
| All their well-worn paths of patience, till I find | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| Comfort in my mind. | 5 | /˘··· |
| Faint and far away their ancient griefs appear: | 11 | ···˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| Yet how near | 3 | ··· |
| Is the tender voice, the careworn, kindly face, | 11 | ··/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Of the human race! | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Let us walk together in the garden, dearest heart,-- | 13 | ···˘/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Not apart! | 3 | ·˘/ |
| They who know the sorrows other lives have known | 11 | ····/˘/˘··· |
| Never walk alone. | 5 | /˘·˘/ |
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.