"I Am The Autumnal Sun" by Henry David Thoreau

 

I Am The Autumnal Sun

Sometimes a mortal feels in himself Nature

— not his Father but his Mother stirs

within him, and he becomes immortal with her

immortality. From time to time she claims

kindredship with us, and some globule

from her veins steals up into our own.

 

I am the autumnal sun,

With autumn gales my race is run;

When will the hazel put forth its flowers,

Or the grape ripen under my bowers?

When will the harvest or the hunter's moon

Turn my midnight into mid-noon?

I am all sere and yellow,

And to my core mellow.

The mast is dropping within my woods,

The winter is lurking within my moods,

And the rustling of the withered leaf

Is the constant music of my grief…

Enjoy the poem with beautiful music.

poem video👇

https://youtu.be/ffU7kM796I8

Who wrote the poem "I Am The Autumnal Sun"?

Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862)

Henry David Thoreau was an American poet, essayist, naturalist, and philosopher. He was a leading transcendentalist and is best known for this book “Walden,” a personal reflection upon simple living in nature. His writings display a unique combination of a poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity, and attention to practical detail. Thoreau was a lifelong abolitionist, and he pioneered modern-day environmentalism. His political philosophy of civil disobedience, which argued for disobedience to an unjust state, later greatly influenced such historical figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. He died of tuberculosis at 44.

"I Am The Autumnal Sun" explanation

In the poem, the speaker declares metaphorically himself the Autumnal Sun and is feeling sorrowful because the season is changing. The poem was written in 1849, during Thoreau’s Walden years. Some interpret it as the poet’s lamenting getting old. Others relate it to Transcendentalism and the poet’s desire to know and become one with the world.

"The Last Rose of Summer" by Thomas Moore

 

The Last Rose of Summer 

‘Tis the last rose of Summer,

Left blooming alone;

All her lovely companions

Are faded and gone;

No flower of her kindred,

No rose-bud is nigh,

To reflect back her blushes

Or give sigh for sigh!

 

I’ll not leave thee, thou lone one,

To pine on the stem;

Since the lovely are sleeping,

Go sleep thou with them.

Thus kindly I scatter

Thy leaves o’er the bed

Where thy mates of the garden

Lie scentless and dead.

 

So soon may I follow,

When friendships decay,

And from Love’s shining circle

The gems drop away!

When true hearts lie withered,

And fond ones are flown,

Oh! who would inhabit

This bleak world alone?

Enjoy the poem with beautiful music. 

poem video👇

https://youtu.be/taLo6FSFr-g

Who wrote the poem "The Last Rose of Summer"?

Thomas Moore (May 28, 1779 – February 25, 1852)

 

Thomas Moore was an Irish writer, poet, composer, lyricist, and political propagandist. He was known for bringing popular Irish culture to English audience by setting English verse to old Irish tunes. He was a close friend of Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. He was also famous for burning Byron’s memoirs (with the publisher John Murray), presumably to protect Byron.

"The Last Rose of Summer" explanation

Moore wrote this poem in 1805, reportedly inspired by a specimen of Rosa ‘Old Blush.’ The poem was set to a traditional Irish tune called “The Young Man’s Dream.” The poem and the tune were published in 1813 in Moore’s A Selection of Irish Melodies.

"Stages" by Hermann Hesse

 

Stages

As every flower fades and as all youth

Departs, so life at every stage,

So every virtue, so our grasp of truth,

Blooms in its day and may not last forever.

Since life may summon us at every age

Be ready, heart, for parting, new endeavor,

Be ready bravely and without remorse

To find new light that old ties cannot give.

In all beginnings dwells a magic force

For guarding us and helping us to live.

 

Serenely let us move to distant places

And let no sentiments of home detain us.

The Cosmic Spirit seeks not to restrain us

But lifts us stage by stage to wider spaces.

If we accept a home of our own making,

Familiar habit makes for indolence.

We must prepare for parting and leave-taking

Or else remain the slaves of permanence.

 

Even the hour of our death may send

Us speeding on to fresh and newer spaces,

And life may summon us to newer races.

So be it, heart: bid farewell without end.

Enjoy the poem with beautiful music.

poem video👇

https://youtu.be/5TEHENiPy0w

Who wrote the poem "Stages"?

Hermann Hesse (July 2, 1877 – August 9, 1962)

Hermann Hesse was a German-born Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946. His works were deeply influenced by Eastern mysticism and explored such themes as individuals’ search for authenticity, identity, and spirituality.

"Stages" explanation

In the poem, the speaker suggests that death is nothing but a stage we all eventually go through and beyond. Therefore we should prepare for it, and when the time comes, we should accept it without fear or obsession.

"Symphony in Yellow" by Oscar Wilde

 

Symphony in Yellow

An omnibus across the bridge

Crawls like a yellow butterfly

And, here and there, a passer-by

Shows like a little restless midge.

 

Big barges full of yellow hay

Are moored against the shadowy wharf,

And, like a yellow silken scarf,

The thick fog hangs along the quay.

 

The yellow leaves begin to fade

And flutter from the Temple elms,

And at my feet the pale green Thames

Lies like a rod of rippled jade.

Enjoy the poem with beautiful music.

poem video👇

https://youtu.be/MRtFksjJ1ok

Who wrote the poem "Symphony in Yellow"?

Oscar Wilde (October 16, 1854 – November 30, 1900)

Oscar Wilde was an Irish poet, playwright, and journalist. He attended Trinity College and Oxford University and became involved in the newly emerging aesthetic movement. His works include poetry, novels, and plays. His plays in particular became extremely popular in London in the 1890s. He married Constance Lloyd in 1884 and had two sons. At the pinnacle of his success, he began a homosexual affair with Lord Alfred Douglas and was arrested and tried for gross indecency. He was convicted and sentenced to two years’ hard labor, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. He was released with his health and reputation ruined and left for France and never returned. He soon died of meningitis in 1900 at the age of 46.

"Symphony in Yellow" explanation

In the poem, the speaker describes a mundane and yet colorful and beautiful scenery of a wharf around the Thames River. The poem presents vivid images, almost like a painting. Wide wrote this poem in 1889, strongly influenced by the Aesthetic movement.

"At a Window" by Carl Sandburg

 

At a Window

Give me hunger,

O you gods that sit and give

The world its orders.

Give me hunger, pain and want,

Shut me out with shame and failure

From your doors of gold and fame,

Give me your shabbiest, weariest hunger!

 

But leave me a little love,

A voice to speak to me in the day end,

A hand to touch me in the dark room

Breaking the long loneliness.

In the dusk of day-shapes

Blurring the sunset,

One little wandering, western star

Thrust out from the changing shores of shadow.

Let me go to the window,

Watch there the day-shapes of dusk

And wait and know the coming

Of a little love.

Enjoy the poem with beautiful music.

poem video👇

https://youtu.be/3r1cakNExpQ

Who wrote the poem "At a Window"?

Carl Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967)

 

Carl Sandburg was an American poet, biographer, novelist, journalist, and folklorist. He received three Pulitzer Prizes (two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln). He has often been compared to Walt Whitman for his use of free verse and admiration of the working class.

"At a Window" explanation

In the poem, the speaker makes an unusual plea for hunger, pain, and want. All he wants in return is a little love. Love is so important to the speaker that he would forgo all his other pleasures.

"Up-Hill" by Christina Rossetti

 

Up-Hill

Does the road wind up-hill all the way?

Yes, to the very end.

Will the day’s journey take the whole long day?

From morn to night, my friend.

 

But is there for the night a resting-place?

A roof for when the slow dark hours begin.

May not the darkness hide it from my face?

You cannot miss that inn.

 

Shall I meet other wayfarers at night?

Those who have gone before.

Then must I knock, or call when just in sight?

They will not keep you standing at that door.

 

Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?

Of labour you shall find the sum.

Will there be beds for me and all who seek?

Yea, beds for all who come.

Enjoy the poem with beautiful music.

poem video👇

https://youtu.be/Ur1L7fTwaOo

Who wrote the poem "Up-Hill"?

Christina Rossetti (December 5, 1830 ~ December 29, 1894)

 

Christina Rossetti was an English poet who was lauded as one of the foremost female poets of the 19th-century Victorian era. She wrote romantic, devotional, and children's poems, marked by symbolism and intense feeling. Her literary status was often compared to that of Elizabeth Barren Browning, and upon Browning's death in 1861, Rossetti was hailed as Browning's rightful successor. She opposed slavery, cruelty to animals, and the exploitation of girls in under-age prostitution. Rossetti suffered from Graves' disease in the later decades of her life. In 1893, she was diagnosed of breast cancer and died of a recurrence in 1894.

"Up-Hill" explanation

The poem is written in the form of a set of conversation between two voices going on an up-hill journey together: one asking questions and the other answering them. The former seems to be struggling and tired, and the latter seems to be encouraging and optimistic. The conversation may represent the support from people around you or internal dialogues with yourself when you pursue any meaningful and difficult endeavors in life.

"Don't Go Far Off, Not Even For A Day" by Pablo Neruda

 

Don't Go Far Off, Not Even For A Day

Don't go far off, not even for a day, because --

because -- I don't know how to say it: a day is long

and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station

when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.

 

Don't leave me, even for an hour, because

then the little drops of anguish will all run together,

the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift

into me, choking my lost heart.

 

Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach;

may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance.

Don't leave me for a second, my dearest,

 

because in that moment you'll have gone so far

I'll wander mazily over all the earth, asking,

Will you come back? Will you leave me here, dying?

 

Enjoy the poem with beautiful music.

poem video👇

https://youtu.be/BCEviPS5JM0

Who wrote the poem "Don't Go Far Off, Not Even For A Day"?

Pablo Neruda (July 12, 1904 – September 23, 1973)

Pablo Neruda was a Chilean poet and politician who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. He wrote in various styles, including surrealist poems and passionate love poems. After Neruda experienced Spanish Civil War as a diplomat in Spain, he became a devoted Communist for the rest of his life. Neruda is often called one of the greatest poets of the 20^th century.

"Don't Go Far Off, Not Even For A Day" explanation

In the poem, the speaker pleads with his beloved not to leave him. Using various metaphors, he expresses his love for his beloved and his fear for a seemingly imminent parting, even alluding to death: “may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach,” “may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance.”

"A Dream Within A Dream" by Edgar Allan Poe

 

A Dream Within A Dream

Take this kiss upon the brow!

And, in parting from you now,

Thus much let me avow--

You are not wrong, who deem

That my days have been a dream;

Yet if hope has flown away

In a night, or in a day,

In a vision, or in none,

Is it therefore the less gone?

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream.

 

I stand amid the roar

Of a surf-tormented shore,

And I hold within my hand

Grains of the golden sand--

How few! yet how they creep

Through my fingers to the deep,

While I weep--while I weep!

O God! can I not grasp

Them with a tighter clasp?

O God! can I not save

One from the pitiless wave?

Is all that we see or seem

But a dream within a dream? 

Enjoy the poem with beautiful music.

poem video👇

https://youtu.be/2m86ilFZwu8

Who wrote the poem "A Dream Within A Dream"?

Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849)

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. He is best known for his poetry as a central figure of Romanticism in the US and short stories as an important contributor in such emerging genres as mystery, detective fiction, and science fiction. He was also the first well-known professional writer, unfortunately resulting in a financially difficult career. Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1809, but his father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died the following year. He was raised as a foster child by John and Francis Allan in Virginia. His academic excellence was marred by his bad habits, and he had to leave the University of Virginia when his foster father refused to pay his gambling debts. In 1827, Poe joined the US Army and published his first collection of poems. Later he quit his military career, changed his focus to prose, and became editors of literary journals. In 1836, he married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm. After she died of tuberculosis in 1847, Poe’s depression and alcoholism got worse. Although he died in 1849 at age 40, the cause of his death is unknown and still controversial among disease, alcoholism, substance abuse, suicide, and others.

"A Dream Within A Dream" explanation

In the poem, the speaker laments his parting from someone significant and asks if his experiences with the person was just a dream or a reality. ‘A Dream within a Dream’ was published in 1849 as a revision of Poe’s earlier poem, ‘Imitation,’ published in 1827. Poe began a romantic relationship (possibly engaged) with Sarah Elmira Royster in 1825. Her father disapproved the relationship, and while Poe was studying at the University of Virginia, she married to another man. Later, Poe found out about this and presumably wrote this poem. After her husband’s death, Royster was engaged with Poe in 1848, right before his death in 1849.

"Home-Thoughts, from Abroad" by Robert Browning

 

Home-Thoughts, from Abroad

Oh, to be in England

Now that April's there,

And whoever wakes in England

Sees, some morning, unaware,

That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf

Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,

While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough

In England—now!

 

And after April, when May follows,

And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!

Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge

Leans to the field and scatters on the clover

Blossoms and dewdrops—at the bent spray's edge—

That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,

Lest you should think he never could recapture

The first fine careless rapture!

And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,

All will be gay when noontide wakes anew

The buttercups, the little children's dower

—Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

Enjoy the poem with beautiful music.

poem video👇

https://youtu.be/2Lxxu7_uRHI

Who wrote the poem "Home-Thoughts, from Abroad"?

Robert Browing (May 7, 1812 – December 12, 1889)

Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright in the Victorian era and was widely known for his dramatic monologues. His father was a bank clerk and assembled a personal library of 6,000 books, which became the foundation of Browning’s education. He married the eminent Victorian poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, in 1846, and the couple moved to Italy and lived there until the wife’s death in 1861. He began to attain literary fame in his 50’s and was widely respected in his later years. 

"Home-Thoughts, from Abroad" explanation

In the poem, the speaker, away from his home country, England, expresses his strong feeling of missing it with a deep affinity with nature. The poem presumably reflects the feeling of the poet himself, having resided in Italy throughout his marriage with Elizabeth Barren Browning from 1846 to 1861.