Rhyme -- "October" -- David Stevens

“October”

By Robert Frost

O hushed October morning mild,         A

Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;      B

Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,              A

Should waste them all.                             B

The crows above the forest call;             B

Tomorrow they may form and go.         C

O hushed October morning mild,          A

Begin the hours of this day slow.           C

Make the day seem to us less brief.       D

Hearts not averse to being beguiled,     A

Beguile us in the way you know.            C

Release one leaf at break of day;            E

At noon release another leaf;                  D

One from our trees, one far away.         E

Retard the sun with gentle mist;            F

Enchant the land with amethyst.           F

Slow, slow!                                                 C

For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,                B

Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,     G

Whose clustered fruit must else be lost—        G

For the grapes’ sake along the wall.      B

Frost, Robert. “October.” A Boy’s Will. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1915. Print.

A brilliant display of rhyme control, Robert Frost’s “October” uses the imagery of nature to express the passage of time and the impending finality of all things. The narrator entreats the reader to appreciate each moment as fall slowly gives way to winter. Frost paints an autumnal scene, complete with leaves “ripened” on their branches. The rhyme scheme, which rhymes completely and without fail, enhances the lyricism and imagery of the poem; it breathes a sing-song voice into the verse, lifting up the seemingly simple subject matter. In the two lines preceding the last, the author introduces a new rhyme sound—with “frost,” fittingly—which alerts the reader to the impending change: the grapes will be lost, and all reality is bounded by finality.