Analysis of A Dream Of Autumn
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
Mellow hazes, lowly trailing
Over wood and meadow, veiling
Somber skies, with wildfowl sailing
Sailor-like to foreign lands;
And the north-wind overleaping
Summer's brink, and floodlike sweeping
Wrecks of roses where the weeping
Willows wring their helpless hands.
Flared, like Titan torches flinging
Flakes of flame and embers, springing
From the vale the trees stand swinging
In the moaning atmosphere;
While in dead'ning-lands the lowing
Of the cattle, sadder growing,
Fills the sense to overflowing
With the sorrow of the year.
Sorrowfully, yet the sweeter
Sings the brook in rippled meter
Under boughs that lithely teeter
Lorn birds, answering from the shores
Through the viny, shady-shiny
Interspaces, shot with tiny
Flying motes that fleck the winy
Wave-engraven sycamores.
Fields of ragged stubble, wrangled
With rank weeds, and shocks of tangled
Corn, with crests like rent plumes dangled
Over Harvest's battle-piain;
And the sudden whir and whistle
Of the quail that, like a missile,
Whizzes over thorn and thistle,
And, a missile, drops again.
Muffled voices, hid in thickets
Where the redbird stops to stick its
Ruddy beak betwixt the pickets
Of the truant's rustic trap;
And the sound of laughter ringing
Where, within the wild-vine swinging,
Climb Bacchante's schoolmates, flinging
Purple clusters in her lap.
Rich as wine, the sunset flashes
Round the tilted world, and dashes
Up the sloping west and splashes
Red foam over sky and sea--
Till my dream of Autumn, paling
In the splendor all-prevailing,
Like a sallow leaf goes sailing
Down the silence solemnly.
Scheme | AAABAAAB AAACAAAC DDDXEEEB FFFEGGGX HXHIAAAI JJXEAAAE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011010 1010110 1011110 1011101 00111 1010110 11101010 111101 11101010 11101010 10101110 001010 10111010 10101010 1011100 1010101 11010 10101010 1011110 11100101 1011010 11110 1011101 111 11101010 11101110 11111110 101101 00101010 10111010 10101010 0010101 10101010 1011111 10101010 101101 00111010 10101110 11110 1010001 1110110 10101010 10101010 1110101 1111101 00101010 1011110 1010100 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,536 |
Words | 251 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 212 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 42 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 1:16 min read
- 149 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"A Dream Of Autumn" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/20768/a-dream-of-autumn>.
Discuss this James Whitcomb Riley poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In