External Form (sonnets) 2: Autumnal Sonnet - William Allingham

Autumnal Sonnet by William Allingham

Now Autumn's fire burns slowly along the woods, a
And day by day the dead leaves fall and melt, b
And night by night the monitory blast c
Wails in the key-hold, telling how it pass'd c
O'er empty fields, or upland solitudes, a
Or grim wide wave; and now the power is felt b
Of melancholy, tenderer in its moods a
Than any joy indulgent summer dealt. b
Dear friends, together in the glimmering eve, d
Pensive and glad, with tones that recognise e
The soft invisible dew in each one's eyes, f
It may be, somewhat thus we shall have leave d
To walk with memory,--when distant lies f
Poor Earth, where we were wont to live and grieve. d


This sonnet is a Petrarchan Sonnet. The first eight lines talk about the autumn and how it has come like a rushing wind, leaving the remnants of summer behind. Then in the final six lines, Allingham talks about how the past is just a faint memory. It is a darker scene than the first eight lines because he is talking about the "poor earth" and where the people will "live and grieve". This second part talks about the horrors that have yet to face them. The summer is the light and the goodness of everything, and the autumn is the apocolypse as it sounds. The rhyme scheme isn't very consistent in the beginning, but it has an almost a-b-a-b, etc. form afterwords.

Allingham uses the Petrarchan Sonnet because it is easier to tell the contrast of two different seasons in two parts, rather than four parts.