The poem starts off by saying that Autumn comes by the rain. Then "with banners, by great gales incessant fanned, brighter than brightest silks of Samarcand" (Longfellow). This means that it is like a banner waving in the wind very lustrously. Then it says that Autumn stands like Charlemagne over the land, and it blesses the farms. So Autumn is very powerful and brings good things. Autumn is like the moon, "suspended so long beneath the heaven's o'erhanging eaves" (Longfellow). It ends by saying that the wind scatters the golden leaves.
I think that Autumn in this poem represents America during the 1800's in a few ways. It is brought in by the rain, which in this case would be like the early colonization of the country. Then it becomes very bright like how America begins to prosper. The next line is "And stately oxen harnessed to thy wain" (Longfellow). This would America is harnessed to Britain. It is then compared to Charlemagne, so this could be when America gains its independence. It is then blessed, and the people's prayers are answered. The last line, "thine almoner, the wind, scatters the golden leaves", could be the expansion of America. Now that it is independent it is expanding like how the wind scatters the leaves.
The poem could obviously allude to many different things. Autumn could represent ideas and people, but I like to bring it into what was going on in history. It could relate to a person that needs to keep on moving on. That would pretty much be related to all the same ideas I attributed to America above, but instead with a single person. Autumn is heralded by the rain, so this person would be born into a rough life. The person then works, like Autumn into its brightness, to greatness. Eventually the person becomes great, and they can spread their ideas to help others. Of course there are a number of different ways to interpret this.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. The Complete Poetical Works, ed. by Horace E. Scudder. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1893; Bartleby.com, 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment