haaayyy!!! one more long test and i am thru!!! 
) second year na
ako... wow. anyway, just wanted to share this poem and my paper on
it...
When Autumn Came
by Faiz Ahmed Faiz
In Category: Nature.
Author Category: Asian.
1 This is the way that autumn came to the trees:
2 it stripped them down to the skin,
3 left their ebony bodies naked.
4 It shook out their hearts, the yellow leaves,
5 scattered them over the ground.
6 Anyone could trample them out of shape
7 undisturbed by a single moan of protest.
8 The birds that herald dreams
9 were exiled from their song,
10 each voice torn out of its throat.
11 They dropped into the dust
12 even before the hunter strung his bow.
13 Oh, God of May have mercy.
14 Bless these withered bodies
15 with the passion of your resurrection;
16 make their dead veins flow with blood again.
17 Give some tree the gift of green again.
18 Let one bird sing.
When Oppression Came
“When Autumn Came” – sounds like a title of a romantic movie just like
“Autumn in New York where you have a picturesque view of seeing autumn;
mainly, falling leaves, and also, couples walking side by side
with their arms around each other, a family of squirrels running up and
down a tree or people gathering corns together before winter emerges.
Poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz however presented a different view of the season
autumn in his poem “When Autumn Came”. He used metaphors and metonymies
in describing nature’s violence during this season and he used these
devices to connect the decay of autumn to the suffering humanity. After
all he is considered as a great revolutionary poet (www.faiz.com). He
started with the line “This is the way that autumn came to the trees”
which immediately tells the readers his objective: to draw a picture of
autumn.
The first dramatic situation Faiz illustrated is found in lines 2 to 7,
how the trees are left “naked” or have no sense of life with their
leaves dwindling down to the ground where “anyone can trample them out
of shape”. In addition, he used the word “heart” as a metaphor to
the trees’ leaves, after all like the human heart, the leaves are a
great indicator of the trees’ health. Heart is also often used as
a metaphor for one’s personality or the very core of a human being,
just like for the trees where the leaves are its source of beauty and
value. Without its leaves, the trees would probably be cut down
and be processed to become lumber denying its primary purpose which is
to provide shade and provide food. He underpins the dramatic
situation with the last line of the stanza “undisturbed by a single
moan of protest” which means that no one is doing something to stop the
exploitation of the trees or nature. Moreover, Faiz continue to
depict a scenario of disapproval in the second stanza when the birds
that once bring dreams to the people (line 8) are banished or killed
“before the hunter strung his bow” even before the fight for their
rights has begun (line 12). Here, he further shows his passion
towards nature to the point that he sees them as humans. He even
used words like skin, hearts, voice and throat which are associated
with human beings as metaphors for parts of nature. With his
fervor and words, Faiz then introduces another dramatic situation which
underlines the oppression towards humans.
Looking again on the first stanza with the new dramatic situation in
mind, Faiz used autumn as a metonymy for oppression or times of war and
trees as a substitute for feeble human beings. The first stanza
then discloses how oppression towards humans leave them “naked” which
is a metaphor for them having no rights, no sense of life and are left
useless. In addition, powerless humans in times of war, as
depicted in lines 4 to 5, remain weak because their very hope,
determination or “heart” is trampled upon. The second stanza
therefore means more than the birds who are affected by the leafless
trees. As trees are to the feeble human beings, the birds who fly
towards the vast blue sky are the people who are considered as heroes
and fights for the rights of the nation. Furthermore, birds are
used as heroes because they are the one’s who painstakingly journey to
the south where there is spring just in order to escape the harshness
of winter or autumn for that matter, as compared to the trees who
cannot move and are subjected to the oppression. Also,
because of their innate will to fight and look for an alternative
solution, the birds as heroes are regarded as the “herald of dreams”
(line 8). What happened then to these heroes? Line 9 to 12 tells
their story. These heroes are “exiled from their song, each voice
torn out of its throat”, song being their cry for freedom and they are
separated from it as a result of exile and out of the land they are
fighting for. Also, they were forced to be silent. If
exiling them didn’t work they were tortured (line 10) or “dropped into
the dust” which means figuratively, they were killed. The gravity
of the situation the heroes are in, is emphasized by line 12 which says
that they were exiled, tortured or killed even before they begun to
fight or if they seem to be a threat. The severity of the
situation moves the poet to prayer as found in the last stanza and
lines of the poem. Moreover, he prays because he seen the
oppression continues as implied by his narration of what already
happened.
He starts the prayer by addressing and imploring the God of May to
bless their withered bodies. May is used as a metonymy for
the season of spring where rejuvenation of nature happens. He
moves on and ask for the god to make their “dead veins flow with blood
again” where he asks the god to rejuvenate their spirit and make them
alive again. Blood then is a metaphor for being alive, as blood
after all carries all the necessary nutrients, minerals and oxygen to
make the body going. Also, blood rushes at the moment where you
are most alive. Furthermore, Faiz closes the prayer and
ultimately the poem with the simple lines, “Give some tree the gift of
green again, Let one bird sing.” The simplicity of plea
highlights a stark contrast in that the situation needs a more
far-reaching remedy since there are a lot of “withered bodies”
involved. The short plea has parallelism to the limited
time people have before they lose their hope or before they die
themselves. These make the readers pity more the situation
brought about by the poem and eventually move them to a stronger
emotion.
The poem “When Autumn Came” may well be considered a subtle picture of
the prevailing condition of mankind as it touches both natures’s and
man’s fragility as can be gleaned from the use of metaphors and
metonymy that parallels both ideas equally. Also in this poem,
Faiz Ahmed Faiz was able to convey what oppression does to people,
which is to strip them off of their dignity, right and power. In
addition to these is the idea that oppression begets more immoral acts
like killing. The poem then is an antipoem that reveals another
side to “autumn” and ultimately, life.
) go watch it and see yourself fall in love... destiny is out there and its the "end"... dont go looking and waiting for it... make it happen.