Song of Scarlet by Edwina Stanton Babcock
"Song of Scarlet" by Edwina Stanton Babcock is a lyrical poem that celebrates the vivid persistence of natural beauty against the onset of winter's cold. The poem centers on the striking image of black-alder berries, whose scarlet clusters stand out brilliantly against a landscape that has otherwise been stripped bare by the season. Through a recurring refrain — "It's going to be cold" — the poem builds a rhythmic tension between warning and wonder, acknowledging the harshness of the coming season while simultaneously marveling at the bold vitality that refuses to yield to it. The poem observes the Commons grown bare, leaves scattering like small brown sparrows across the ground, locust pods rattling on skeletal branches, and the wind turning sharp and relentless. These are familiar signs of late autumn's surrender to winter. Yet amid this general retreat and decay, the alder berries persist, described as rubies, as necklaces, as scarlet trinkets hung upon the shivering year — ornaments of life strung across the heath where milkweed has already gone to seed. Other hardy survivors appear as well: reindeer moss retaining its vitality, thorn-berries tossing near the holly, small pockets of color and life holding their ground against the grey encroachment. The poem's emotional turn comes in its final lines, where the tone shifts from observation to defiant celebration. Rather than yielding to dread or resignation, the speaker calls for wood-fires to be piled high and asks who cares if it is cold when such brightness remains. The scarlet berries become a symbol not merely of botanical endurance but of a broader human spirit — the capacity to find warmth, beauty, and even joy in the face of severity. The cold is real, the poem insists, but it is not the whole story.
By Edwina Stanton Babcock · First published 1924 · Genre: Poetry, Nature Poetry, Seasonal/Autumn Poetry · 234 words
First lines
The black-alder berries are thick this year, / (It's going to be cold); / Their scarlet trinkets, their necklaces bold / Hang on the shivering wind-swept year, / (It's going to be cold).
Now, the Commons are bare and the leaves whirl around, / (It's going to be cold); / Like little brown sparrows flicked over the around / (It's going to be cold); / But the black alder-berries like rubies embeaded / String out on the heath where the milkweed has seeded, / (It's going to be cold).
Genres
- Poetry — The work is structured with line breaks, rhyme scheme, and rhythmic meter characteristic of verse, specifically employing a repeating refrain and lyrical language.
- Nature Poetry — The entire composition focuses on detailed observations of natural elements including plants, berries, wind, and seasonal changes with vivid botanical imagery.
- Seasonal/Autumn Poetry — The poem explicitly depicts the transition to winter through descriptions of bare commons, falling leaves, brittle branches, and repeated warnings of cold weather.
- Pastoral — The work evokes rural landscapes with references to commons, heaths, milkweed, and natural flora in an idealized natural setting.
Tags
romance · historical fiction · drama · passion · love story · literary fiction · emotional · classic · women's fiction · coming of age · adventure · mystery
What this Textopian page supports
Song of Scarlet is listed on Textopian as a poem by Edwina Stanton Babcock, dated 1924 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Edwina Stanton Babcock
- Date: 1924 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Poetry, Nature Poetry, Seasonal/Autumn Poetry, Pastoral, Descriptive/Imagist Poetry
- Length: 234 words
- Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Difficult (10th-12th Grade)
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- Work identity for Song of Scarlet by Edwina Stanton Babcock
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- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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