Classic and Contemporary Poetry
FOUR SONGS OF FOUR SEASONS: 4. AUTUMN IN CORNWALL, by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The year lies fallen and faded Last Line: Broke, breaking with the sea. Subject(s): Autumn; Death; England; Sea; Seasons; Fall; Dead, The; English; Ocean | ||||||||
THE year lies fallen and faded On cliffs by clouds invaded, With tongues of storms upbraided, With wrath of waves bedinned; And inland, wild with warning, As in deaf ears or scorning, The clarion even and morning Rings of the south-west wind. The wild bents wane and wither In blasts whose breath bows hither Their grey-grown heads and thither, Unblest of rain or sun; The pale fierce heavens are crowded Wite shapes like dreams beclouded, As though the old year enshrouded Lay, long ere life were done. Full-charged with old-world wonders, From dusk Tintagel thunders A note that smites and sunders The hard froze-fields of air; A trumpet stormier-sounded Than once from lists rebounded When strong men sense-confounded Fell thick in tourney there. From scarce a duskier dwelling Such notes of wail rose welling Thro' the outer darkness, telling In the awful singer's ears What souls the darkness covers, What love-lost souls of lovers, Whose cry still hangs and hovers In each man's born that hears. For there by Hector's brother And yet some thousand other He that had grief to mother Passed pale from Dante's sight; With one fast linked as fearless, Perchance, there only tearless; Iseult, and Tristram, peerless And perfect queen and knight. A shrill-winged sound comes flying North, as of wild souls crying The cry of things undying, That know what life must be? Or as the old year's heart, stricken Too sore for hope to quicken By thoughts like thorns that thicken, Broke, breaking with the sea. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HALL OF OCEAN LIFE by JOHN HOLLANDER JULY FOURTH BY THE OCEAN by ROBINSON JEFFERS BOATS IN A FOG by ROBINSON JEFFERS CONTINENT'S END by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE FIGUREHEAD by LEONIE ADAMS A BALLAD OF DEATH by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE |
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