27.

Bold uses the extended metaphor of a robbery to highlight the seasonal changes brought about by
Autumn and how they affect us.

Autumn is a time where the lush vegetation and foliage of Spring and Summer begin to die
away, as the cycle moves towards the barren Winter period. Therefore, the simile of "Autumn
arrives / Like an experience robber" helps to convey to the reader that Autumn takes away what was
once there. Additionally, the writer employs personification to help us imagine Autumn as a
scheming person, "Grabbing the green stuff" and "Then cunningly covering his tracks". The
alliteration of 'grabbing' and 'green' and 'cunningly' and 'covering' helps to add to the cartoonish
villain description that Bold gives to the season but helps us as readers appreciate the changes
around us.

Moreover, the speaker continues the extended metaphor by describing the wind as “his
accomplice / Putting an air of chaos / Into the careful diversions”. In other words, the wind helps
Autumn to steal the glories of the Summer by distracting people with ‘chaos’ through swirling winds.
The personification here helps us to imagine the wind as part of a grand scheme to stop people
seeing the ‘theft’ that is taking place. Bold creates a new perspective on Autumn so that as readers
we can reflect on what is happening and how it affects us.

As the piece continues, we learn how the winds help to distract people: “So branches
shake / And dead leaves are suddenly blown / In the faces of inquisitive strangers”. More
personification is used and the aggressive verbs of ‘shake’ and ‘blown’ help us to envision the
conflict between people and weather. At this point, the adjective ‘inquisitive’ implies that people are
noticing the changes that are happening. As the Autumn robs the world of its greenery, it helps to
throw dead leaves into the people who are unknown to the Autumn, referred to as ‘strangers’.

Once ‘the theft’ is complete, we are told that it “chills the world, / Changes the temper of
the earth” which alludes to the climate being colder as we approach Winter. Further personification
is used when the sky is described as “placid” and is juxtaposed with a “red” sky that has an
oxymoronic “quiet rage”. The colours of Autumn are in this poem used to connote ‘rage’ and anger,
which again highlights the conflict between people and nature.

However, the season is not all described in a negative manner. The speaker mentions
“colourful distractions” that appear in a “deep multitude”. Whilst the weather may conflict with
what people are used to, the world around us becomes very “colourful” and this in turn makes
strangers “inquisitive”.

Moreover, the structure of the poem helps the writer to convey their perspective on
Autumn. Although the piece is in one stanza, there is some use of caesuras at key moments to help
manipulate the pace and focus of the poem. The first pause occurs as the speaker moves from
describing the Autumn to the wind, and repeats ‘the wind’ twice, perhaps implying the speaker is
stunned by its power or impressed by how it affects us. As we move on, the writer uses enjambment
until finishing the description of the wind and its impact, before providing a final section on how the
wind and the season have robbed the world of its heat and changed the colour of its sky. Essentially,
the writer employs caesuras to structure the poem into four key sections, helping to control how
and what the reader focuses on.

Overall, It seems as though the poet wants us to think of Autumn as violent, immoral and
ultimately a thief. The regular use of personification and the aggressive verbs included make this
clear to the reader. It is as if the poet wants us to see Autumn as criminal, that it takes far more than
it gives. Bold’s use of a crime motif throughout the poem really helps to emphasise these ideas to his
readers.

27.2

Today and Autumn both provide very different perspectives on seasons. Whilst Autumn
presents the season as aggressive, confrontational and immoral, Today implores the reader to go out
into the world and witness the spring weather that has emerged.

Both poems use quite violent and aggressive verbs and imagery, but for very different
reasons. The violence in ‘Autumn’ is the season attacking the world and its people, stealing from
them: “Like an experienced robber”. The violence in ‘Today’ is targeted at the Winter and about
releasing the world and its people from its stasis and isolation: “and unlatch the door to the canary’s
cage”. Whilst Autumn looks at how the weather and the season deceive the people in order to steal
their summer, Today is about releasing the spring from its imprisonment.

Additionally, whilst Autumn transforms the sky into a red that suggests “quiet rage”, the
spring in Today transforms the sky “into this larger dome of blue and white”, colours that give off
connotations of calmness and peace. Autumn alludes to death with “dead leaves”, whilst Today
alludes to birth and new life: “a day when the cool brick paths and the garden bursting with
peonies”. The powerful verb ‘bursting’ suggests that life is forcing its way back into the world, in
contrast to autumn stealing life from the world in ‘Autumn’.

Finally, the structures of both poems are very different. Whilst Autumn employs only one
stanza that is broken down using sparse caesuras, Today is divided up into nine couplets which
provides a slower pace that emphasises the power of life coming back into the world, but the poem
also uses caesuras in a similar fashion to Autumn, highlighting key moments, such as “a spring day so
perfect”, that coerces the reader into focusing on this powerful image.