When Autumn Came summary |When Autumn Came summary class 11 Alternative English AHSEC

When Autumn Came is the poem written by Faiz Ahmed Faiz. Here I have shared with When Autumn Came‘s summary. Here you will find stanza wise summary of When Autumn Came as well as a short summary of this poem.

When Autumn Came Summary

The Poem “When Autumn Came “ highlights on the viciousness of the season autumn and talks about the effects it brings to its surroundings like birds, trees or even humans.

The elaboration of this poem is connected with the idea of oppression by the upper class. Faiz Ahmed Faiz highlights the social revolution and changes it bought along. Therefore the poem could be connected to this concept as the trees probably representing the poor people, autumn represents a period of hopelessness and a phase where the upper class did not treat well the lower class.

The “yellow leaves” which were once green represent the lower class or the working class. The upper-class humiliated them so badly that they did not even have enough courage to protest for themselves, even if they try to protest they apparently were failed as nobody heard them. Therefore, the poet stresses the social cruelty, violence, injustice, economic inequality by the bourgeoisie (the upper class) the birds here represent the poets, writers, reformers, and revolutionaries.

They are the mediators or the messengers who bring in new thoughts and ideas in the minds of people. However, in the time of oppression and censorship (the act of throttling), even these messengers who conveyed the new concept to the people and their voices were loud enough lost their voices. They were not able to express themselves as a society did not permit them to do so which led to halting to the new ideas and concepts which spoke for themselves. “When Autumn Came” by

Faiz Ahmed Faiz is a metaphoric personification as it connects to the living thing or any human. This means that the poet would be encouraged enough to highlight the huge impact on something near and dear to him. The first few lines say, this is the way that autumn came to the trees: it stripped them down to the skin left their ebony bodies naked.

This means that autumn represents change as it destroys the trees and left them without their outer layer as the stems of the trees are completely empty now. These trees could symbolize anything and as the poem carries on and interpreting its information, it seems that the trees stand for Faiz’s (poet’s) country or himself.

This is simply because Faiz had a bit of rough life since he was in the war and was arrested and sentenced to death. Also, there is a verse in the poem ‘it shook out their hearts, the yellow leaves scattered in the ground.

Further, it continued by demonstrating the details of how badly these trees were hurt and wounded from the big change that occurred earlier. Perhaps the Great War, World War 2 could take the place of autumn and the poet Faiz is referring to the adverse effects of the War as the countries and their people were badly hurt and injured and the consequences of War were too severe.

The verse; anyone can trample them out of shape, undisturbed by a single moan of protest’ portrays the vulnerability of their country, the trees. Line 7 suggests that possibly the country is already too weak to protest.

In lines 8 till 11, Faiz states that ‘The birds that herald dreams were exiled from their song, each voice torn out of its throat, then dropped into dust even before the hunter strung his bow’. This indicates that the things that gave people hope before World War 2 had started have now long been gone.

Even before the war started, perhaps the country was collapsing somehow, leaving people hopeless. This also could reflect the meaning that people were losing hope and dread ling the war before it came initiated because they knew some kind of violence like that was bound to occur. Furthermore, the crying out to God of May seems a bit questionable but Faiz might be referring to his one God and simply putting emphasis on May because it represents spring and fertility.

The line Bless these withered bodies with the passion of your resurrection make their dead veins flow with blood again illustrates how the people including the poet are crying out to end this phase and praying for the rebirth of things. In other words, people are actually sick of suffering caused by War and them from their bottom of their heart this troubled cycled to end and waiting for things to come back to normal. The last line clearly indicates the willingness of the Poet to end this vicious cycle and suffering.

Metaphorically, it could be said that the poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz creates an analogy either it is reflecting the social class difference or the suffering during World War 2.

Stanza Wise Summary of When Autumn Came

Stanza: 1

The poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz initiates the first stanza of the poem emphasizing how autumn approaches the trees and brings along some unpleasant effects to it. He states that the season removes the leaves from the trees as the leaves fell on the ground and result in trees becoming coverless. He states that when leaves drop down on the ground and are all scattered, anyone can walk over them and the leaves turn into various different shapes except their original existing shape. As the trees are non-living things, they cannot even protest about the suffering they need to encounter during this season.

Stanza: 2

 In the other stanza, the poet throws lights on the birds and their agony. He states that the birds who were engraved in the trees are deprived of their shelter as they are unable to build their nest on the trees, as the leaves do not exist on the trees. Consequently, birds are not able to live there. The poet states that even we, human beings are deprived of the voices of the birds. We are not fortunate enough to hear the chirruping and various voices of the birds. The poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz elucidates on the fact that the hunters cannot be successful in killing the birds as the birds do not subsist on the trees anymore.

Stanza: 3

The poet prays to God to send blessings on the trees and the birds and asks God to revitalize the trees as the birds are homeless and trees are unveiled as their true essence and beauty is completely removed from them. Their real beauty is gone astray because of the existence of the autumn season. The poet carried on praying to God to reenergize the trees so that the process of trees growing up doesn’t cease and they blossom again. In the last stanza, the poet continues to pray to God to restore lives in the trees s that the birds could live as they did previously and we, humans could also hear the peaceful and calming sounds of birds and could see the beautiful nature all over again.

Stanza: 4

 The poet ends the poem on a very hopeful note as he states the word “green” as this word indicates regeneration, happiness, and shared prosperity. The poet feels that a classless society can make a huge change too as even if ‘one bird is allowed to sing’. This means even if one bird is allowed to express the ideas that would suffice. The poem is a progression, an evolution from hopelessness to hope, from autumn to spring, and from a class-based society to a regenerated one.

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