Autumn by Christina Georgina Rossetti
A speaker dwelling alone beside a river hears maidens singing on laden boats that pause in a calm and then sail away. The speaker fears for a storm-tossed swallow, leaves a spider's web undisturbed despite sorrow for its victims, and laments a lonely shore and creaking tower.
By Christina Georgina Rossetti · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Melancholic Poetry, Nature Poetry · 663 words
First lines
I dwell alone, -- I dwell alone, alone, / Whilst full my river flows down to the sea, / Gilded with flashing boats / That bring no friend to me: / O love-songs, gurgling from a hundred throats, / O love-pangs, let me be.
Fair fall the freighted boats which gold and stone / And spices bear to sea: / Slim, gleaming maidens swell their mellow notes, / Love-promising, entreating, -- / Ah! sweet, but fleeting, -- / Beneath the shivering, snow-white sails. / Hush! the wind flags and fails, -- / Hush! they will lie becalmed in sight of strand, -- / Sight of my strand, where I do dwell alone; / Their songs wake singing echoes in my land, -- / They cannot hear me moan.
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — The first-person speaker repeatedly declares loneliness and addresses love-songs and love-pangs in rhymed stanzas.
- Melancholic Poetry — The boats bring no friend, their singers cannot hear the speaker's moan, and their departure leaves the shore intensely lonely.
- Nature Poetry — A storm-tossed swallow, acorn-bearing oaks and a dew-strung spider's web draw the speaker's attention to vulnerable lives.
Tags
loneliness · riverboats · swallows · spiderwebs · longing
What this Textopian page supports
Autumn is listed on Textopian as a poem by Christina Georgina Rossetti, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Christina Georgina Rossetti
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Melancholic Poetry, Nature Poetry
- Length: 663 words
- Structure: 1 section, 7 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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- Work identity for Autumn by Christina Georgina Rossetti
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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