Autumn Song
By W. H. Auden
Now the leaves are falling fast,
Nurse’s flowers will not last,
Nurses to their graves are gone,
But the prams go rolling on.Whispering neighbours left and right
Daunt us from our true delight,
Able hands are forced to freeze
Derelict on lonely knees.Close behind us on our track,
Dead in hundreds cry Alack,
Arms raised stiffly to reprove
In false attitudes of love.Scrawny through a plundered wood,
Trolls run scolding for their food,
Owl and nightingale are dumb,
And the angel will not come.Clear, unscaleable, ahead
Rise the Mountains of Instead,
From whose cold cascading streams
None may drink except in dreams.
Summary of Autumn Song
- Popularity of “Autumn Song”: The poem ‘Autumn Song’ was by Wystan Hugh Auden, a prolific Anglo-American poet. It is a descriptive, poetic piece that was published in 1936. The poem speaks about the arrival of the autumn season. It beautifully sheds light on how life takes a dramatic turn when this season knocks at our doorstep. To make this poem worth reading, the poet has inserted various poetic elements and universal thematic strands.
- “Autumn Song” As a Representation of Sadness: The poem centers around the autumn season, an epitome of sadness and death. It brings noticeable changes to the world. With its arrival, leaves begin to fall from the trees, and flowers start to wither and die. After describing its harmful impacts on the environment, he details how it affects our lives. Our beloved nurses also die, but children continue to be born, implying the cyclical nature of life and death follows the same pattern. Similarly, the happy company of the neighborhood also becomes rare. Everyone stands on the same track from life to end, as there is no other path to follow. It makes other creatures suffer as well. The losses make people numb, lifeless, and desperate. Even angles refuse to come to the earth, let alone the creatures. One can see hope, light, and happiness only in dreams.
- Major Themes in “Autumn Song”: The transience of life, death, and the impacts of the autumn season are the major themes of the poem. The speaker tries to paint the bleak, dark, and heart-wrenching realities one witness on the arrival of autumn. Everything on the earth undergoes unexpected changes; it brings disasters to the world. First, the vibrant colors of the ground begin to disappear; the leaves and flowers start to die. In comparison, human beings and other creatures go through the same phase. Even their colorful lives turn into something dark and painstaking. To create a more powerful impact on this season, the speaker states that even the angels disappear, and the dead seems close to the living.
Analysis of Literary Devices Used in Autumn Song
literary devices are powerful elements used to convey the writer’s unique ideas appealingly. W.H. Auden used some literary devices in the poem to make it profound. The analysis of the devices used in the poem is as follows.
- Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /oo/ in “Scrawny through a plundered wood” and the sound of /o/ in “But the prams go rolling on.”
- Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line in quick succession, such as the sound of /f/ in “forced to freeze” and the sound of /g/ in “graves are gone.”
- Anaphora: It refers to the repetition of a word or expression in the first part of some verses. For example, the word “Nurses…” is repeated in the first stanza of the poem to emphasize the point;
“Now the leaves are falling fast,
Nurse’s flowers will not last,
Nurses to their graves are gone.”
- Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /t/ and the sound of /r/ in “Daunt us from our true delight” and the sound of /r/ and the sound of /d/ in “Able hands are forced to freeze.”
- Enjambment: It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break; rather, it rolls over to the next line. For example,
“Whispering neighbours left and right
Daunt us from our true delight,
Able hands are forced to freeze
Derelict on lonely knees.”
- Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. For example, “Able hands are forced to freeze”, “Dead in hundreds cry Alack” and “Nurse’s flowers will not last.”
- Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings that are different from literal meanings. “Prams go rolling on” symbolizes the cycle of life.
Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in Autumn Song
Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is an analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.
- End Rhyme: End rhyme is used to make the stanza melodious. W. H Auden has used end rhyme in this poem, such as “streams/dreams”, “ahead/instead” and “wood/food.”
- Quatrain: A quatrain is a four-lined stanza borrowed from Persian poetry. Here each stanza is quatrain.
- Rhyme Scheme: The poem follows AABB rhyme Scheme, and this pattern continues until the end.
- Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. There are five stanzas in this poem, with each comprising four lines.
Quotes to be Used
The lines stated below are useful while talking about the drastic changes the world witnessed during the shift in weather.
“Now the leaves are falling fast,
Nurse’s flowers will not last,
Nurses to their graves are gone,
But the prams go rolling on.”