ABSTRACT
Autumn begins by struggling to release itself from the power and effulgence of Summer. As the season unfolds it describes the maturity of nature and its subsequent decline. It is, therefore, the season of radical changes tempered by the poet’s view of melancholy, though pleasing, resignation. In depicting a natural and human world in change Thomson captures the similarity of actions and the fragmentariness of perception. A storm in one place, shade in another, primitive man and civilized states, these are depicted as simultaneous occurrences, and they sometimes become part of a harmony image that implies a greater harmony than is immediately visible. The anxiety to which Autumn can lead is stressed when, after the effusive eulogy to Onslow, with its distending, spreading, glowing, the mildness of the season is suddenly interrupted by the returning ‘Effulgence’ of the Summer sun.
