Analysis of Autumn Ballad

Henry Abbey 1842 (Rondout ) – 1911 (New York)



How mild and fair the day, dear love! and in these garden ways
The lingering dahlias to the sun their hopeless faces raise.
The buckwheat and the barley, once so bonny and so blithe,
Fall before the rhythmic labor of the cradler's gleaming scythe.

Behold the grapes and all the fruits that Autumn gives today,
As robed in red and gold, she rules, the Empress of Decay!
Out to the orchard come with me, among the apple trees;
No dragon guards the laden boughs of our Hesperides.
This golden pear, my darling, that I hold up to your mouth,
Is a hanging-nest of sweetness; but the birds are winging south.
The purses of the chestnuts, by the chilly-fingered Frost,
Were opened in his frolic, and their triple hoards are lost.

Last night you heard the tempest, love-the wind-entangled pines,
The spraying waves, the sobbing sky that lowered in gloomy lines;
The storm was like a hopeless soul, that stood beside the sea,
And wept in dismal rain and moaned for what could never be


Scheme AAXX BBXACCDD EEFF
Poetic Form
Metre 11010111001101 01001101110101 0100101110011 10101010101101 01010101110101 11010111010101 11010111010101 110101011101 11011101111111 101011101011101 01010101010101 01001100110111 11110101010101 010101011100101 01110101110101 01010101111101
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 960
Words 174
Sentences 8
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 8, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 48
Words per line (avg) 11
Letters per stanza (avg) 256
Words per stanza (avg) 58
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Submitted by Nazetel on September 01, 2021

Modified on April 01, 2023

52 sec read
8

Henry Abbey

Henry Abbey (July 11, 1842 – June 7, 1911) was an American poet who is best remembered for the poem, "What do we plant when we plant a tree?" He is also known for "The Bedouin's Rebuke".  more…

All Henry Abbey poems | Henry Abbey Books

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