Autumnal Vibes: Poems Exploring the Season | The Paperback Hour

The leaves are turning, the days are growing shorter, and poets have been asking the same question for centuries: what does autumn mean? In this episode of The Paperback Hour, host Ron pairs four autumn poems with public domain films. Along the way he asks whether this season is a time of harvest, a time of loss, or a reminder to love harder while we can. Poems in this episode Emily Brontë, “Fall, Leaves, Fall” Edna St. Vincent Millay, “The Death of Autumn” Effie Lee Newsome, “O Autumn, Autumn!” William Shakespeare, Sonnet 73 In this episode Why Brontë, the poet of Wuthering Heights, finds bliss in the dreariest days of the year How Millay’s “The Death of Autumn” turns dead grass into a crushing weight, and what it means to ask “What is the Spring to me?” The scandal behind Millay’s “Renascence” and The Lyric Year poetry contest How Effie Lee Newsome, a Harlem Renaissance poet, uses exclamation points to turn a haunted landscape into a hymn Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73, the “Fair Youth” sonnets, and the debate over its final couplet, including Prince’s and Frank’s critical readings Why English speakers say “fall” while the British say “autumn,” and where both words come from Timestamps [00:00] Introduction [01:38] Emily Brontë, “Fall, Leaves, Fall” [02:08] Discussion of “Fall, Leaves, Fall” [05:47] Edna St. Vincent Millay, “The Death of Autumn” [06:48] Discussion of “The Death of Autumn” [12:15] Effie Lee Newsome, “O Autumn, Autumn!” [12:52] Discussion of “O Autumn, Autumn!” [18:03] William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 73” [19:11] Discussion of “Sonnet 73” [26:12] Final Thoughts: autumn, fall, and what the season means Films featured A Lady to Love (1930), Victor Sjöström The Ten Commandments (1923), Cecil B. DeMille Seduction (1929), Gustav Machatý The Peasant Women of Ryazan (1927), Olga Preobrazhenskaya Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life (1925), Merian C. Cooper Flesh and The Devil (1926), Clarence Brown Faust (1926), F. W. Murnau The Ocean Waif (1916), Alice Guy-Blaché Malarpirater (1923), Gustaf Molander Destiny (1921, Fritz Lang Wings (1927), William A. Wellman Menilmontant (1926), Dimitri Kirsanoff Le Roi des Aulnes (1929), Marie-Louise Iribe Mikael (1924), Carl Theodor Dreyer The Lodger (1927), Alfred Hitchcock Music Credits Prelude No. 19 by Chris Zabriskie Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Source: http://chriszabriskie.com/preludes/ Artist: http://chriszabriskie.com/ Stopping By the Inn by Twin Musicom Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Source: http://www.twinmusicom.org/song/298/s... Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org Prelude No. 2 by Chris Zabriskie Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Source: http://chriszabriskie.com/preludes/ Artist: http://chriszabriskie.com/ To Loom is to Love by The Mini Vandals Coming next time: More autumn poems and more possible themes, including the season as a time of thanksgiving. The Paperback Hour is where we enjoy poems and stories paired around themes and brought to life through public domain films. If you enjoyed this one, like, subscribe, and tell me in the comments which poem you saw yourself in. Are you singing a hymn of praise to autumn, or mourning the green times?