Ernest Dowson's 'Autumnal' — a tender, twilight meditation on the sweet melancholy of October
Autumnal by Ernest Dowson (from Verses, 1896):
Pale amber sunlight falls across
The reddening October trees,
That hardly sway before a breeze
As soft as summer: summer's loss
Seems little, dear! on days like these.
Let misty autumn be our part!
The twilight of the year is sweet:
Where shadow and the darkness meet
Our love, a twilight of the heart
Eludes a little time's deceit.
Are we not better and at home
In dreamful Autumn, we who deem
No harvest joy is worth a dream?
A little while and night shall come,
A little while, then, let us dream.
Beyond the pearled horizons lie
Winter and night: awaiting these
We garner this poor hour of ease,
Until love turn from us and die
Beneath the drear November trees.
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I'm sharing this poem for many reasons:
I'm reading a Alice Hoffman's The Invisible Hour right now. This poem reminds me of the main character's crush on Nathaniel Hawthorne (died in 1864). I think her novel takes place in the 80's, and I JUST found out while looking that up that she will be traveling back in time to 1837!!! I'm only on page 102. Oh, I can't wait. Maybe I'll write a commentary on it when I finish.
This poem uses the word twilight. It is a five-stanza poem (five quatrains with a single closing line in each), moving from the amber light of October through the "twilight of the heart" to the final, bleak image of love dying beneath bare November trees.
It's October!
And, Ernest Dowson died in 1900, so his works have been in the public domain worldwide for decades. Even in Mexico, which has the longest copyright term on earth (life + 100 years), his works entered the public domain in 2001. In the US, UK, EU, and most other countries, they've been free to use since the early-to-mid 20th century. We can freely quote, reproduce, translate, or adapt Autumnal anywhere in the world!
I hope you enjoyed it as much as I have.
Love,
Twilight
