Lyric Poem · Nature
Autumn
1Thou comest, Autumn, heralded by the rain,
2With banners, by great gales incessant fanned,
3Brighter than brightest silks of Samarcand,
4And stately oxen harnessed to thy wain!
5Thou standest, like imperial Charlemagne,
6Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand
7Outstretched with benedictions o'er the land,
8Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!
9Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended
10So long beneath the heaven's o'er-hanging eaves;
11Thy steps are by the farmer's prayers attended;
12Like flames upon an altar shine the sheaves;
13And, following thee, in thy ovation splendid,
14Thine almoner, the wind, scatters the golden leaves!
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“Autumn” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow — quilloak.com/poems/autumn
Quick facts
- Poem
- Autumn
- Poet
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Length
- 14 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Nature, Autumn, Peace
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 14 lines · one 14-line stanza
- Line length
- Lines run 10-12 syllables (median 11). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1807–1882
- Source record
- PoetryDBAutumn by henry-wadsworth-longfellow, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 2b87dc2236eec550…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.