Brighter than brightest silks of Samarcand" (Longfellow 2-3). These two lines help to describe the beauty of the leaves falling in Autumn, and it also provides an allusion. Samarcand was a city that Alexander the Great conquered. The city was known for its beautiful silks, and Longfellow claims that the beauty of Autumn is greater than the beauty of the silks. The next few lines are more about nature, specifically about farmers. One characteristic of Romanticism writing is an obsession with far away lands. During the Rationalism literary period, the United States was just starting to open up with westward expansion, with the west being a new, interesting place. Farmers would settle there, which is why I believe that this poem was written with farmers in mind.
Thou standest, like imperial Charlemagne, upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand outstretched with benedictions o'er the land, blessing the farms through all thy vast domain! (Longfellow 5-8)This passage from the text talks about a farmer standing over his land, blessing all of the farms. There is also an allusion to Charlemagne, who was the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Longfellow compared the farmer to Charlemagne by stating his power over his land, and how the farmer was in complete control. The bridge of gold may have been referring to his vast wheat fields, but that is just a guess. The last few lines of the poem continue on to talk about the harvest moon being the shield for the farmer and concludes with a passage comparing the blowing of the leaves to "flames upon an altar" (Longfellow 9-14).
| Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. The Complete Poetical Works, ed. by Horace E. Scudder. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1893; Bartleby.com, 2011. www.bartleby.com/356/60.html. Dec. 13, 2011. |
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