Autumn

by Roy Campbell

I love to see, when leaves depart, The clear anatomy arrive, Winter, the paragon of art, That kills all form of life and feeling save what is pure and will survive.

Already now the clanging chains Of geese are harnessed to the moon: Stripped are the great sun-clouding planes: And the dark pines, their own revealing, Let in the needles of the noon.

Strained by the gale the olives whiten Like hoary wrestlers bent with toil And, with the vines, their branches lighten To brim our vats where summer lingers In the red froth and sun-gold oil.

Soon on our hearths reviving pyre Their rotted stems will crumble up: And like a ruby, panting fire, The grape will redden on your fingers Through the lit crystal of the cup.

Glossary: Paragon - a person who is excellent, or who is a perfect example of a particular quality. Hoary grey haired from age; (in botany) covered with short white hair. Vat large cask or tub. Hearth stone or brick surface on which a domestic fire is made. Pyre pile of wood on which to burn a corpse. Synecdoche Referring to something by mentioning only a part of it or vice versa.

Summary: The poem explores and descries autumn and the approach of winter together with the regular changing of the seasons. It conveys how the destructive powers of autumn and winter are a purification process and necessary to harvesting.

Themes: . The power of change/transformation. . The interdependence of the seasons. . An enjoyment and appreciation of nature.

Structure: . 4 stanzas 4 seasons . Alternating rhyme scheme as well as an interlinking rhyme between stanzas 1 and 2 (line 4 and 9), and stanzas 3 and 4(line 14 and19) which indicates a link between seasons (see themes). Interpretation: Key: Blue - contrast Yellow - synecdoche Green - important connotation

Line: 1. Leaves separate from their trees and fall to the ground. 2. The bare branches of the trees are exposed. 3. Winter is described as the epitome of art which has connotations of beauty and that which has enduring value. 4. Winter purges/cleanses the world. 5. There is an exception, obviously, for that of lasting value. Refers back to art (line 3) 6. Metaphor: clanging refers to the noise that the geese make whilst the chains suggest the their migratory flight formation where each is a link in a chain. Chains also negatively suggests a restraint, indicating that the geese are constrained to the process of seasonal change. 7. The geese appear to pull the moon along the night sky as they migrate. Harnessed also suggests that the geese have been utilised as elements that work together in a process. Link with chains (line 6) 8. Trees that, in summer, would block out the sun with their leaves have now lost them. The reference to summer again suggests the interlink of the seasons (see themes). Stripped has connotations of being harsh or violent, like winter. It also links with anatomy (line2) as it requires the outside of something to be removed, as the leaves were from the trees. 9. The pine trees are evergreen and hence can still conceal things behind their needles. 10. Needles makes reference to the needles of pine trees, which here are used to describe thin shafts of light that penetrate the foliage of the trees. Noon is significant in that it marks the change from morning to afternoon as autumn marks the change of summer to winter. 11. Olives trees turn white as their leaves turn over to expose the short white hairs on the underside. The reason for this whitening may be from fear of the coming harshness of winter, suggested with the word strained, or as a symbol of purity (line 5) and the cleansing power of winter. 12. Simile: olive trees are described as hoary, which links with whiten (line 11), and as bent wrestlers. This suggests the knurled state of the trees and the physical struggle against the hardship, toil, that they have endured in the transformation of autumn. 13. Olive trees and grape vines are stripped of their fruit in the process of harvest. 14. The grapes and olives are pressed and stored in vats which brim, they border on overflowing. This suggests the bountifulness of the harvest. Summer lingers is another reference to the interlink of the seasons (see themes) and refers to the growth and fertility of summer. 15. Wine and oil are the final products of the grapes and olives. The olive oil is described as sun-gold suggesting the wealth of the harvest and/or of summer.

16. Oxymoron: the pyre, where dead bodies are burned, is described as bringing new life. This suggests the purification process of winter; the killing of the old to cultivate the new in spring again. 17. The rotted stems of grape vines and olive trees, symbolising the old, are burned up in order to provide warmth during the winter, allowing a revival in the spring. 18. Wine is described as a ruby, suggesting wealth or preciousness as well as a deep red colour, which allows the fire in the hearth to illuminate it. That it pants fire adds an element of mystery and wonder to the image. 19. The light of the fire casts the red colour of the wine onto your fingers. 20. The image is concluded.

Compiled by B. S. Seegers