Autumn
Thou burden of all songs the earth hath sung,Thou retrospect in Time's reverted eyes,Thou metaphor of everything that dies,That dies ill-starred, or dies beloved and youngAnd therefore blest and wise,--O be less beautiful, or be less brief,Thou tragic splendour, strange, and full of fear!In vain her pageant shall the Summer rear?At thy mute signal, leaf by golden leaf,Crumbles the gorgeous year.
Ah, ghostly as remembered mirth, the taleOf Summer's bloom, the legend of the Spring!And thou, too, flutterest an impatient wing,Thou presence yet more fugitive and frail,Thou most unbodied thing,Whose very being is thy going hence,And passage and departure all thy theme;Whose life doth still a splendid dying seem,And thou at height of thy magnificenceA figment and a dream.
Stilled is the virgin rapture that was June,And cold is August's panting heart of fire;And in the storm-dismantled forest-choirFor thine own elegy thy winds attuneTheir wild and wizard lyre:And poignant grows the charm of thy decay,The pathos of thy beauty, and the sting,Thou parable of greatness vanishing!For me, thy woods of gold and skies of greyWith speech fantastic ring.
For me, to dreams resigned, there come and go,'Twixt mountains draped and hooded night and morn,Elusive notes in wandering wafture borne,From undiscoverable lips that blowAn immaterial horn;And spectral seem thy winter-boding trees,Thy ruinous bowers and drifted foliage wet--Past and Future in sad bridal met,O voice of everything that perishes,And soul of all regret!
Words in this poem 17
- retrospect v. i.
- To look backward; hence, to affect or concern what is past. [L. retrospicere; retro back + specere, spectum, to look. See Spy, and cf. Expect.]
- reverted a.
- Turned back; reversed. Specifically: (Her.) Bent or curved twice, in opposite directions, or in the form of an S.
- splendour n.
- Great brightness; brilliant luster; brilliancy; as, the splendor ot the sun. B. Jonson. [L. fr. splendere to shine: cf. F. splendeur.]
- pageant n.
- A theatrical exhibition; a spectacle. [OE. pagent, pagen, originally, a movable scaffold or stage, hence, what was exhibited on it, fr. LL. pagina, akin to pangere to fasten; cf. L. pagina page, leaf]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- gorgeous a.
- Imposing through splendid or various colors; showy; fine; magnificent. [OF. gorgias beautiful, glorious, vain, luxurious; cf. OF. gorgias ruff, neck handkerchief, and F. gorge throat, and se pengorger to assume airs. Cf. Gorge, n.]
- ghostly a.
- Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual; as, a ghostly confessor. [OE. gastlich, gostlich, AS. gastlic. See Ghost.]
- departure n.
- Division; separation; putting away. [From Depart.]
- magnificence n.
- The act of doing what magnificent; the state or quality of being magnificent. Acts xix. 27. [F. magnificence, L. magnificentia. See Magnific.]
- figment n.
- An invention; a fiction; something feigned or imagined. [L. figmentum, fr. fingere to form, shape, invent, feign. See Feign.]
- elegy n.
- A mournful or plaintive poem; a funereal song; a poem of lamentation.
- attune v. t.
- To tune or put in tune; to make melodious; to adjust, as one sound or musical instrument to another; as, to attune the voice to a harp. [Pref. ad- + tune.]
- poignant a.
- Pricking; piercing; sharp; pungent. [F., p. pr. of poindre to sting, fr. L. pungere to prick, sting. See Pungent.]
- resigned a.
- Submissive; yielding; not disposed to resist or murmur.
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- elusive a.
- Tending to elude; using arts or deception to escape; adroitly escaping or evading; eluding the grasp; fallacious.
- wafture n.
- The act of waving; a wavelike motion; a waft. R. Browning.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Autumn is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of William Watson, Project Gutenberg ebook #13179; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Watson, Autumn, in The Poems of William Watson (1892–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13179, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/watson-poems/autumn.html, id L11245.
Form and metre
Autumn is 40 lines in 4 stanzas of 10 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBABCDDCD, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.2 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 18% 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 ABBABCDDCD sungA · eyesB · diesB · youngA · wiseB · briefC · fearD · rearD · leafC · yearD
- 2 ABBABCDDCD taleA · springB · wingB · frailA · thingB · henceC · themeD · seemD · magnificenceC · dreamD
- 3 ABBA-CDDCD juneA · fireB · choirB · attuneA · lyre · decayC · stingD · vanishingD · greyC · ringD
- 4 ABBABCDDCD goA · mornB · borneB · blowA · hornB · treesC · wetD · metD · perishesC · regretD
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 burden of all songs the earth hath sung, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Thou retrospect in Time's reverted eyes, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Thou metaphor of everything that dies, | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘··· |
| That dies ill-starred, or dies beloved and young | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| And therefore blest and wise,-- | 6 | ······ |
| O be less beautiful, or be less brief, | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Thou tragic splendour, strange, and full of fear! | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| In vain her pageant shall the Summer rear? | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| At thy mute signal, leaf by golden leaf, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Crumbles the gorgeous year. | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Ah, ghostly as remembered mirth, the tale | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Of Summer's bloom, the legend of the Spring! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And thou, too, flutterest an impatient wing, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Thou presence yet more fugitive and frail, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘·· |
| Thou most unbodied thing, | 5 | ····· |
| Whose very being is thy going hence, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| And passage and departure all thy theme; | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Whose life doth still a splendid dying seem, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| And thou at height of thy magnificence | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| A figment and a dream. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Stilled is the virgin rapture that was June, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And cold is August's panting heart of fire; | 11 | ···/˘/˘··/˘ |
| And in the storm-dismantled forest-choir | 11 | ····˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| For thine own elegy thy winds attune | 10 | ···/˘˘··˘/ |
| Their wild and wizard lyre: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And poignant grows the charm of thy decay, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| The pathos of thy beauty, and the sting, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Thou parable of greatness vanishing! | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘/˘˘ |
| For me, thy woods of gold and skies of grey | 10 | ·········· |
| With speech fantastic ring. | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| For me, to dreams resigned, there come and go, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| 'Twixt mountains draped and hooded night and morn, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Elusive notes in wandering wafture borne, | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘/˘· |
| From undiscoverable lips that blow | 10 | ·········· |
| An immaterial horn; | 7 | ··˘/˘˘· |
| And spectral seem thy winter-boding trees, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Thy ruinous bowers and drifted foliage wet-- | 10 | ·/˘/·/˘/˘· |
| Past and Future in sad bridal met, | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| O voice of everything that perishes, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| And soul of all regret! | 6 | ····˘/ |
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