The Nutter by Herbert Trench (1900)
In "The Nutter," Herbert Trench's speaker is the Autumn, who watches her courtiers, the chestnuts, limes, larches and elms, shed their leaves. A Nutter, deaf to his fellow-thieves, sleeps on the leaves in the beech while a squirrel, culvers and tits scatter. Autumn tells him his friends have gone to sack the glades and bids him wake and go. He rises, ashamed, and vaults the brambles. Autumn then departs too, soaring in a million wings over fen, coast and town.
By Herbert Trench · First published 1900 · Genre: Nature poetry, Autumnal poetry, Pastoral poetry · 583 words
First lines
1. I am the Autumn. Rising from the throne / I watch the pageant of my courtiers pass; / Chestnuts' canary-feather'd beauty strown -- / The lime's gold tribute at his foot amass -- / Then fragile jewels from the larches blown / Enrich with disarray the trembling grass, / Until the beggar'd elms, too proud to bend, / Emblaze a hundred winds with my rash kingdom's end.
Similar titles
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- Nepenthe by Henry Van Dyke
- The Descent From Delphi by Edwina Stanton Babcock
- Deer In Autumn by Ruth Collie
Genres
- Nature poetry — Its whole subject is the natural world in autumn, with the beech wood, squirrels, tits, larches, elms, fern and sloe-bearing hedgerows rendered in close observation.
- Autumnal poetry — The speaker is the Autumn itself, and the falling chestnut leaves, gold lime, mast and frost-mellowed fruit are arranged around the season's decline into winter.
- Pastoral poetry — The glades, dell, spinney and brake, and the rustic figure of the Nutter gathering nuts, follow the convention of idealised country life.
- Allegorical poetry — The Autumn is personified as a king whose courtiers and rich kingdom stand for the passing of the year, and the boy and squirrel episode carries a wider meaning about time and loss.
Tags
autumn · seasonal change · personification · nature poetry · lyric poetry · falling leaves · woodland · beech tree · squirrel · birds · nut gathering · Dryad
What this Textopian page supports
The Nutter is listed on Textopian as a poem by Herbert Trench, dated 1900 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Herbert Trench
- Date: 1900 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Nature poetry, Autumnal poetry, Pastoral poetry, Allegorical poetry, Lyric poetry
- Length: 583 words
- Structure: 1 section, 6 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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