{
 "id": "george-macdonald/autumn-song",
 "title": "Autumn Song",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "George MacDonald",
 "poet_slug": "george-macdonald",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Poetical Works of George MacDonald, Volume I",
 "book_slug": "poetical-works-vol-1",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 49,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1893,
  "venue": "The Poetical Works of George MacDonald, Volume I (1893)",
  "note": "Taken from the 1893 collected Poetical Works, which is the printing this text is and not the poem's first appearance. MacDonald gathered and revised for it work published from 1855 onward, and it arranges the poems by its own editorial grouping rather than by the volumes they came from, so which earlier book or magazine printed this poem first has not been established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poeticalworks01macduoft",
   "https://archive.org/metadata/poeticalworks01macduoft",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9543"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/george-macdonald_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1953",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8949",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9543",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9984",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10578",
   "https://archive.org/details/bookofstrifeinfo00macd",
   "https://archive.org/details/discipleandothe02macdgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/hiddenlifeandoth00macduoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/discipleandothe02macdgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/rampolli00macd",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102955776",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011821572"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 40,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Autumn clouds are flying, flying",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er the waste of blue;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Summer flowers are dying, dying,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Late so lovely new.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Labouring wains are slowly rolling",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Home with winter grain;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Holy bells are slowly tolling",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Over buried men.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Goldener light sets noon a sleeping",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like an afternoon;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Colder airs come stealing, creeping",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the misty moon;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the leaves, of old age dying,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Earthy hues put on;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Out on every lone wind sighing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That their day is gone.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Autumn’s sun is sinking, sinking",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Down to winter low;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And our hearts are thinking, thinking",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the sleet and snow;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For our sun is slowly sliding",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Down the hill of might;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And no moon is softly gliding",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up the slope of night.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "See the bare fields’ pillaged prizes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Heaped in golden glooms!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "See, the earth’s outworn sunrises",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dream in cloudy tombs!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Darkling flowers but wait the blowing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of a quickening wind;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the man, through Death’s door going,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Leaves old Death behind.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Mourn not, then, clear tones that alter;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let the gold turn gray;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Feet, though feeble, still may falter",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Toward the better day!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Brother, let not weak faith linger",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er a withered thing;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Mark how Autumn’s prophet finger",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Burns to hues of Spring.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}