Autumn Within by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Surrounded by youth, spring, and busy birds, the speaker feels old and lonely. This inward autumn takes shape as falling dead leaves and the silence of flail and mill.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Melancholic Poetry · 107 words
First lines
It is autumn; not without, / But within me is the cold. / Youth and spring are all about; / It is I that have grown old.
Birds are darting through the air, / Singing, building without rest; / Life is stirring everywhere, / Save within my lonely breast.
There is silence: the dead leaves / Fall and rustle and are still; / Beats no flail upon the sheaves / Comes no murmur from the mill.
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — Three rhymed quatrains express a speaker's inward cold and loneliness against the surrounding activity of spring.
- Melancholic Poetry — The speaker feels old and isolated while birds sing and build; falling leaves and silent harvest work give this sadness a seasonal shape.
Tags
aging · loneliness · autumn · spring · birds · silence
What this Textopian page supports
Autumn Within is listed on Textopian as a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Melancholic Poetry
- Length: 107 words
- Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
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