Journal #20 - Autumn Poem

I think that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "Autumn" is seemingly interesting. I think that is uses a great deal of Romanticism qualities throughout the very short poem. It is very descriptive when it comes to the detail included throughout the poem. "Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended, So long beneath the heaven’s o’erhanging eaves; Thy steps are by the farmer’s prayers attended; Like flames upon an altar shine the sheaves;" In this quote by Longfellow, he describes and compares the "shield" to a red harvest moon. I think that this comparison and description is a big part of Romanticism writing. Many writers of the time period used a lot of nature in their works. Longfellow's poems are full of hinted nature comparisons and also a lot of obvious representations. As far as what the poem itself means, I think that it talks about the season of Autumn and how it brings a lot of glorious things. New weather, colorful trees, bright attitudes, and long sleeve shirts fill the Autumn air all around the world. This poem made me think of parts of the county that do not experience all of the symptoms of fall. I am pretty sure San Diego, California does not have cooler temperatures and drastic changes in leaf color throughout the city. Anyway, I think that the poem is definitely Romanticism style because it is rather descriptive, despite the fact that it is kind of short. I liked the poem and thought that Longfellow put a lot of hard work into getting a seemingly short poem to have such powerful and encouraging meaning. A lot of writing during that time period seems to be short, but have a lot of meaning in the little lines that there are. I do not know if I prefer poems such as this one, or ones that have more depth to them. I like how I can translate the meaning of the literature to my liking because I seem to have different perspectives a lot of the time.