Across centuries and continents, poets have turned to autumn as a mirror of human experience: a time when beauty and decay, fullness and farewell, coexist.
From Shakespeare’s trembling sonnets to Rilke’s serene surrender, from Keats’ harvest hymns to Yeats’ wistful elegies, the language of autumn has come to mean far more than fallen leaves; it is the vocabulary of change itself.
In contemporary culture, autumnal poems still hold their relevance because they bring a message of shared, collective transitions in nature and in human life.
A season marking the beginning of a carnivalesque atmosphere, while some ruminate and watch the sun fade into the horizon, it is also the time to embark on something new, or to just repose.
In an age that races forward, these verses remind us to slow down, to honour the pause between abundance and absence with the start of the winter season, and to find the dignity in decline.
Autumn invites contemplation, urging us to accept impermanence not as loss but as continuity.
Each poem in this collection, though born in its own era, speaks to this timeless human truth of life's transience, and the inevitable change.
Song of the Witches (1606)
By William Shakespeare
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon's blood
Then the charm is firm and good.
About the poem:
Set in Macbeth, this eerie incantation evokes the dark energies of fate, power, and the supernatural. The witches’ chant mirrors the moral decay within human ambition, blending grotesque imagery with the rhythm.
Autumn’s shadowy essence underlies the bubbling cauldron where decay and rebirth meet. It captures the essence of transformation, chaos, and the blurring of natural order. Beneath the surface horror lies a commentary on moral corruption. The witches embody manipulation and inevitability. It’s a quintessential autumnal spell, dark, transformative...
Also heard in the movie Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the song is a reminder of every sinister, and everything magical.
About the poet:
William Shakespeare (1564–1616), England’s foremost dramatist and poet, wrote 39 plays and 154 sonnets that shaped modern English literature. His mastery of language, insight into human psychology, and profound sense of rhythm made his works timeless. In tragedies like Macbeth, he explored ambition, guilt, and destiny with moral complexity. Shakespeare’s influence extends beyond literature to global culture, philosophy, and even everyday speech. His works remain the touchstone of poetic and dramatic excellence.
Sonnet 73 (1609)
By William Shakespeare
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by.
This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
About the poem:
This sonnet uses the imagery of autumn, twilight, and dying fire to reflect the poet’s knowledge of ageing and mortality. Each quatrain deepens the meditation, first the trees stripped of leaves, then the fading day, and finally fire consumed by its own ashes. The season becomes a mirror for the body’s decline. Yet, in the closing couplet, Shakespeare transforms decay into tenderness: awareness of death strengthens love. The poem’s rhythm and imagery convey quiet dignity in the transience of life. Autumn is no longer just a season, it becomes a metaphor for life’s mellow end. Through acceptance of impermanence, the poet discovers renewed passion and peace.
To Autumn (1820)
By John Keats
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
About the poem:
Keats’s ode celebrates autumn as a time of abundance and fulfillment rather than decline. Each stanza is about a phase of the day, morning, afternoon, or evening, mirroring the natural life cycle. The imagery of ripened fruit, drowsy harvesters, and glowing skies evokes an almost sacred calm, a wait for the better.
The poem accepts the fading of vitality as beautiful, not tragic. Sound, colour, and scent combine into a symphony of autumn. Keats finds spiritual harmony between creation and decay. Even in the dying light, life continues to sing, softly, sweetly, eternally. It is the romantic imagination at its peak.
About the poet:
John Keats (1795–1821) was a key figure in English Romanticism, known for his rich imagery and deep sensitivity to beauty and transience. His major odes, such as, "To Autumn", "Ode to a Nightingale", "Ode to the Grecian Urn", explore art, nature, and mortality. Though he died at just 25, his verse influenced generations of poets. Keats’s belief in “negative capability”, the ability to dwell in uncertainty, made his work profoundly human and timeless.
Autumn (1839)
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
With what a glory comes and goes the year!
The buds of spring, those beautiful harbingers
Of sunny skies and cloudless times, enjoy
Life’s newness, and earth’s garniture spread out;
And when the silver habit of the clouds
Comes down upon the autumn sun, and with
A sober gladness the old year takes up
His bright inheritance of golden fruits,
A pomp and pageant fill the splendid scene.
There is a beautiful spirit breathing now
Its mellow richness on the clustered trees,
And, from a beaker full of richest dyes,
Pouring new glory on the autumn woods,
And dipping in warm light the pillared clouds.
Morn on the mountain, like a summer bird,
Lifts up her purple wing, and in the vales
The gentle wind, a sweet and passionate wooer,
Kisses the blushing leaf, and stirs up life
Within the solemn woods of ash deep-crimsoned,
And silver beech, and maple yellow-leaved,
Where Autumn, like a faint old man, sits down
By the wayside a-weary. Through the trees
The golden robin moves; the purple finch,
That on wild cherry and red cedar feeds,
A winter bird, comes with its plaintive whistle,
And pecks by the witch-hazel, whilst aloud
From cottage roofs the warbling blue-bird sings;
And merrily, with oft-repeated stroke,
Sounds from the threshing-floor the busy flail.
O what a glory doth this world put on
For him who, with a fervent heart, goes forth
Under the bright and glorious sky, and looks
On duties well performed, and days well spent!
For him the wind, ay, and the yellow leaves
Shall have a voice, and give him eloquent teachings.
He shall so hear the solemn hymn, that Death
Has lifted up for all, that he shall go
To his long resting-place without a tear.
About the poem:
Longfellow’s "Autumn" is both visual and philosophical. The poet admires the splendour of the season, the golden trees, the purple mountains, but also contemplates duty, faith, and death. The imagery blends the American landscape with classical dignity. Autumn becomes a moral teacher, whispering about labour, ageing, and the quiet acceptance of life’s end. The rhythm carries a meditative calm, portraying nature as benevolent and wise.
About the poet:
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) was one of America’s most beloved poets, known for his accessible and musical verse. His works, including Evangeline and The Song of Hiawatha, gave poetic voice to American identity. A Harvard professor, he was the first American poet to gain international fame. Longfellow’s moral clarity and melodic diction made him a household name in the 19th century.
Fall, Leaves, Fall (1846)
By Emily Brontë
Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night's decay
Ushers in a drearier day.
About the poem:
Emily Brontë finds joy in the decay of autumn and the coming of winter’s stillness. Her tone in the poem isn't about conventional sadness, but about embracing death as renewal. The falling leaves become emblems of spiritual liberation. She welcomes solitude and darkness as moments of clarity. The brevity of the poem depicts the calm acceptance she preaches. Nature’s fading beauty becomes a symbol of resilience. It is both elegy and affirmation, a quiet hymn to not let go, but to hold on.
About the poet:
Emily Brontë (1818–1848), one of the Brontë sisters, was an English novelist and poet whose only novel, *Wuthering Heights*, is a classic of passion and isolation. Her poetry, marked by mystical intensity and nature worship, reflects her inner independence and deep spiritual insight. Though her life was brief and secluded, her voice endures as one of English literature’s most haunting.
Among the Rocks (1855)
By Robert Browning
Oh, good gigantic smile o’ the brown old earth,
This autumn morning! How he sets his bones
To bask i’ the sun, and thrusts out knees and feet
For the ripple to run over in its mirth;
Listening the while, where on the heap of stones
The white breast of the sea-lark twitters sweet.
That is the doctrine, simple, ancient, true;
Such is life’s trial, as old earth smiles and knows.
If you loved only what were worth your love,
Love were clear gain, and wholly well for you:
Make the low nature better by your throes!
Give earth yourself, go up for gain above!
About the poem:
Browning’s Among the Rocks celebrates self-growth through engagement with nature. The earth, personified as a smiling, ancient being, teaches acceptance and faith. Love, the poem implies, gains meaning only when tested by struggle. The speaker sees divine reflection in the rugged landscape. Autumn’s sunlight and stones symbolise endurance. The rhythmic movement from observation to introspection reflects Browning’s moral optimism. The poem merges faith, philosophy, and natural imagery into a vision of perseverance and transformation.
About the Poet:
Robert Browning (1812–1889) was a leading Victorian poet, famed for his psychological depth and dramatic monologues. His marriage to Elizabeth Barrett Browning created one of literature’s great partnerships. Browning’s work explores moral courage, art, and the quest for truth. His influence extended into modernism through his realism and exploration of the human soul.
