"Autumn" by T.E. Hulme
A touch of cold in the Autumn night –
I walked abroad,
And saw the ruddy moon lean over a hedge
Like a red-faced farmer.
I did not stop to speak, but nodded,
And round about were the wistful stars
With white faces like town children.
Explication:
This poem by T.E. Hulme was first published in January of 1909 in a publication called For Christmas MDCCCCVIII. “Autumn” is fairly straightforward and concrete in its meaning and language, which aligns it with the modernist tradition. This language and imagery creates memorable images in the mind of the reader, which also aligns it with the Imagism poetry that Ezra Pound was famous for. Instead of the traditional form, meter, and language of poetry that was common to Victorian-era poets, Imagist poetry emphasized concrete images created with concise language that the average reader could understand. This can be seen in “Autumn” not only due to the imagery and language, but also due to the fact that the seven lines of “Autumn” have no standard meter or rhyme scheme.
This poem is made up of three complete thoughts. The first is line 1, the second is lines 2-4, and the third is lines 5-7. The first line, “A touch of cold in the Autumn night –” not only gives us an image of what the Autumn night feels like, but it also sets up what the rest of the poem will be about. The dash at the end not only completes the thought, but it also forces the reader to take a break before reading the rest of the poem to take in what the poem will be about.
The second complete thought, lines 2-4, has a central image of the moon. It uses the simile (“like a red-faced farmer”) to describe the “ruddy moon,” creating a striking image for the reader. This is significant to the poem’s topic and setting, because it is about an autumn night, and the “autumn moon,” also called the “harvest moon,” is red. Also, the first line of the thought, line 2 “I walked abroad” is very straightforward, using concise and colloquial language, which was characteristic of Modernist and Imagist writing.
The third and final complete thought, lines 5-7, has a central image of the stars. Again, a striking simile is used to create an image, but this time of the stars. Hulme describes the “wistful stars” as having “white faces like town children.” By using this simile, Hulme in a way personifies the stars, or at least their appearance, to make the image stick out to the reader. Again, the first line of this complete thought “I did not stop to speak, but nodded,” is very straightforward, using concise and colloquial language, which was characteristic of Modernist and Imagist writing.
Essentially, the poem “Autumn” demonstrates T.E. Hulme’s part in the Imagist movement alongside other Imagist poets (most notably Ezra Pound, who met Hulme in 1909 and was influenced by him in his essay, “A Few Don’ts.”) It does so by creating concrete, striking images using simple and concise language.
Works Cited
CSENGERI, K. E. “The Chronology of T. E. Hulme’s ‘Speculations.’” The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, vol. 80, no. 1, 1986, pp. 105–09. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24303758. Accessed 17 Apr. 2023.
GIBSON, MATTHEW. “CONTRADICTORY IMAGES: THE CONFLICTING INFLUENCES OF HENRI BERGSON AND WILLIAM JAMES ON T. E. HULME, AND THE CONSEQUENCES FOR IMAGISM.” The Review of English Studies, vol. 62, no. 254, 2011, pp. 275–95. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23016466. Accessed 17 Apr. 2023.
Hulme, T. E. “Autumn by T. E. Hulme.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44431/autumn-56d22384ccb48.
“Imagism.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/imagism.