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1867) was aFrench poet who also produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and
pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe.
His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil), expresses the changing nature of
beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the 19th century. Baudelaire's highly original style of
prose-poetry influenced a whole generation of poets including Paul Verlaine, Arthur
Rimbaud and Stphane Mallarm among many others. He is credited with coining the term
"modernity" (modernit) to designate the fleeting, ephemeral experience of life in an urban
metropolis, and the responsibility art has to capture that experience.
language resonates throughout the years seasons, particularly in moments when we find
ourselves sighing over the better days of the past. At those times, we give ourselves to the
wind that carries us to our broken and brief memoriesthe wind that almost allows us to
forget our present state as dead lea[ves].
Paul Verlaine was a French poet at the end of the nineteenth century, and one of the key
figures of the Symbolist literary movement. Verlaine manipulated language to evoke
emotion through the cadence and musicality of words. Arthur Symons translation of
Chanson dautomne is the closest, Ive found, to grasping the voice of the original. The
longing for paled memories still rings through the English verses.
Interestingly enough, the first stanza of Chanson dautomne was used as a secret message
by BBC to alert the French Resistance to the start of D-Day operations in World War II.
Perhaps Verlaines words captured the essence of this war, in which the level of belligerence
that was reached irrevocably tainted the nature of global relations.
When a poem has a title like Song of Autumn, its setting a particular
expectation of itself. The use of the word song, for instance, suggests a
very specific, and very poetic look at the following subject. The use of the
word autumn instead of fall furthers this idea. Theres a lot that can be
conveyed in a good title, and Mary Oliver sends a very strong impression
with this one. Song of Autumn is very good at conveying its theme,
beginning right from the title, where the authors word choice gives her work
an immediate edge in evoking the season. Theres a lot of power in a title
used well, and its typically a good sign for the poem to follow as well.
seems like it was likely chosen for readability and formatting reasons over
any particular meaning in text.
of the impending need to hibernate, and seek safety from the coming cold.
Despite this, the next lines depict the beginning of winter in positive terms,
romanticizing the whispered good-byes of the glowers, and the crowning of
the evergreen trees during the first snowfall. The image of the evergreen, as
well as the idea that the flowers are saying good-bye implying that they
will be back continues to push forward the idea of stability, of something
that lasts. Autumn is being depicted as a time to maintain and ensure
survival.
The pond / vanishes, and the white field over which / the fox
runs so quickly brings out / its blue / shadows. And the wind
pumps its / bellows. And at evening especially, / the piled
firewood shifts a little, / longing to be on its way.
The natural scenery is described beautifully in the poems conclusion;
everything is covered in white snow and blue shadows; the inclusion of a fox
to breathe additional life into the wintry scene is a strong idea by the author.
It is undoubtedly cold, if the wind reminds the speaker of pumping bellows,
but this line is placed in almost as an afterthought, and feels buried beneath
the natural descriptions and colours, as though the speaker can observe and
admire the transition of autumn to winter without being bothered by the fact
that the nights are longer, or that the temperature is colder. The strength of
the natural world overcomes.
The final line is an ambiguous one. It brings in a human element to the
poem, that of firewood, and then personifies the firewood, suggesting it
wants to continue on its way. The way could refer to returning to the natural
world, where safety and stability are core themes, or it could refer to its
predetermined path of becoming a fire to light and warm another being. In
the context of a song of autumn, it could be that the firewood is simply
looking to provide that warmth and stability that has been an underlying
theme throughout so much of the poem thus far.