Charles Pierre Baudelaire (/bodlr/;[1] French: [al bodl] (

listen); April 9, 1821 August 31,

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.

Short Summary of Autumn

Song by Paul Verlaine
Article shared by Charu B
The Autumn Song describes the sadness that comes and prevails as the autumn
arrives. The poet finds autumn a doomed period in his life and has compared the fall of
the leaf in the autumn season with some mournful event.
The poem carries a theme of depression and lifelessness that is accompanied with
theautumn coming. The poet says that his heart begins to sink with grief and sorrow as
the autumn leaves begin to fall. One just wants to lie down and sleep for longer periods,
which the poet believes is an indication of the heart which wants to cry alone in sadness
and mourning. The repeated use of the phrase In Autumn at the fall of the leaf is to
emphasize that when the autumn leaves fall, it feels as if joys have begun to shed.
Not only the heart, but the mind or the brain also stops responding. The swift beat of
brain refers to the response of the brain. With the autumn arriving, the brain also feels
numb and fails to sense anything. So much is the inactivity of the brain that even the
joys are sensed like pain by it when the autumn season comes. The dullness of the
brain is an indication of the sadness that persists not only in the heart but also in the
mind. The fall of the leaves is such a dismal scene that the mind and the heart fail to
function correctly saddened by the autumn feel.
Chanson dautomne, or Autumn Song, conveys the nostalgic recollection that teems in
the breezes of grey, crisp air. Dying leaves recall their greenery, just as the poetic voice
recalls livelier days that are irretrievably over. Though Verlaine speaks of autumn, his

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.

Song of Autumn The Poem

Despite its perceived length, Song of Autumn is a mere six sentences long,
and pays no particular attention to line breaks or even stanza changes.
Therefore, it makes more sense to examine it as a whole than it does to
examine the verse break the author chose for this particular piece, which

seems like it was likely chosen for readability and formatting reasons over
any particular meaning in text.

In the deep fall

dont you imagine the leaves think how
comfortable it will be to touch
the earth instead of the
nothingness of air and the endless
freshets of wind? And dont you think
the trees themselves, especially those with mossy,
warm caves, begin to think
of the birds that will come six, a dozen to sleep
inside their bodies? And dont you hear
the goldenrod whispering goodbye,
the everlasting being crowned with the first
tuffets of snow? 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.

Song of Autumn Analysis

In the deep fall / dont you imagine the leaves think how /
comfortable it will be to touch / the earth instead of the /
nothingness of air and the endless / freshets of wind?
Immediately, the most prominent poetic device being used throughout the
poem is personification. The autumn leaves are being given the human
qualities of longing and comfort, and it is implied that they would rather be
on the ground than hanging in the air. There is a need for comfort embedded
in these lines, a desire for belonging and stability. Interestingly, the poem
begins with dont you imagine, suggesting that the speaker is seeking
companionship, and for someone to agree with their perspective and
outlook, the one that imagines that the leaves wish they could be on
something solid and stable, rather than dangling precariously in the air.

And dont you think / the trees themselves, especially those

with mossy, / warm caves, begin to think / of the birds that
will come six, a dozen to sleep / inside their bodies? And
dont you hear / the goldenrod whispering goodbye, / the
everlasting being crowned with the first / tuffets of snow?
These next lines continue to personify the natural world. In the second
sentence, it is the trees that are given human characteristics, and in
particular, the hollowed out trees, the ones covered in moss that birds like to
sleep inside. This continues the earlier theme of stability, offering a sense of
safety and comfort for the smaller animals that take autumn as an indication

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.

By using personifying devices alongside detailed natural imagery, Mary

Oliver is able to create a calm, quiet, and almost therapeutic atmosphere out
of the natural world. Inviting us to share the perspective that the natural
world is alive and sentient in its own way is a wonderful thing to do, and
fulfils an aspect of poetry that seeks to create bonds between the author and
the reader. Whether or not there is any exact meaning or historic context
behind the vivid descriptions is a difficult thing to assess. As the poem
stands, it is in itself a beacon for beauty and the security of the natural
world, as it exists in perfect balance with itself; the birds and the trees, the
trees and the leaves, the leaves and the ground, where the roots of the trees
are buried deep, patiently awaiting the return of spring.