The Death Of Autumn

Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892 (Rockland) – 1950 (Austerlitz)



When reeds are dead and a straw to thatch the marshes,
And feathered pampas-grass rides into the wind
Like aged warriors westward, tragic, thinned
Of half their tribe, and over the flattened rushes,
Stripped of its secret, open, stark and bleak,
Blackens afar the half-forgotten creek,—
Then leans on me the weight of the year, and crushes
My heart. I know that Beauty must ail and die,
And will be born again,—but ah, to see
Beauty stiffened, staring up at the sky!
Oh, Autumn! Autumn!—What is the Spring to me?

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 08, 2023

28 sec read
116

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCADDEFGFG
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 516
Words 95
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 11

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American poet and playwright. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923, the third woman to win the award for poetry, and was also known for her feminist activism more…

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