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                                 The Atmosphere of the Poem 

           The busy street, the floating cloud, the verdant trees, the humming bees...all of these subjects can be written in poems, no matter they are lovely or not because there is no limitation. Moreover, poets can give anything a totally different meaning than its original meaning by creating the atmosphere properly. The atmosphere of a poem helps readers understand the poem better physically and psychological. In " Once Upon an Autumn Day" , Joseph T. Renaldi creates a soft and peaceful atmosphere to show that death is not horrible and accepting is the best way to face it. 

          “Once Upon an Autumn Day” is about the life-time of autumn leaves. It shows the pressures of those leaves’ change during autumn day by day and finally nest in a haven to welcome their winter-----death. Renaldi also wrote some sceneries in the woods which create a peaceful, cold and a little bit blue atmosphere of the autumn. The poem is separated into four stanzas, and the first sentence of each stanza is all the same which is “ once upon an autumn day”. The title is also the same. This kind of repetition of sentence makes the poem look much more neatly and orderly. And other three sentences in one stanza are different. And it will let people focus on the differences between the last three sentences of every stanza that indicates the change of autumn leaves and trees as the passing of time. The poem clearly shows that the leaves first change their colors and then fall down roaming in the wind, and they stop in the haven and finally be covered by the snow.

            The poem is not only just telling the fact of leaves’ falling or winter’s coming, but also uses many figurative languages that portrays the deeper meaning of the poem. This is the way that helps readers understand the poem mentally. For example, the whole poem uses personification to describe the breeze and leaves. It says “whispering breeze was here to stay/ moving aimlessly through the countless trees” which means the breeze is soft and not that strong. It creates a peaceful and quiet atmosphere. And the leaves “until at last they came to rest/ finding a haven in which to nest” also indicates that it is the end of the leaves life, and they find their belonging to start the long dreams. The important thing of writing a scenery poem like “Once Upon an Autumn Day” is to create the atmosphere and images because by doing this way the readers can imagine the pictures of the poem and can think about the plots by themselves. It is kind of to arouse the same feelings between the speaker and readers, and Renaldi tries to let readers taste the feelings of watching the falling of human-like leaves. It is a psychological way to help readers understand the poetry much better. Renaldi also uses hyperbole. “ the countless trees” shows the number of the trees is big, however, it is still a countable number, so here is hyperbole. The tremendous number of trees is trying to show that here is the homeland of leaves and trees which matches up with the “belonging” that mentioned above, which is much easier to lead readers get into that sense.  

          Moreover, the rhyme scheme is AABB AACC AADD AAEE which is very strict, however, the meters are not strictly following the rule. For the first stanza, it uses assonance, which is the repetition of /i/ sound, that gives readers the feeling of chilly to indicate the autumn’s coming. It is not the hot summer any more, which lays the foundation of the temperature of the poem. Actually, the repetition of /i/ sound appears all over the whole poem. Renaldi also uses consonances, which is the repetition of /s/ sound. It imitates the sound of the wind and the sound of leaves falling down. The repetition of sounds is a physical way to create the feelings and atmosphere which lets readers involve in the poem successfully.

            When I read the poem, there are many images floating in my brain which are the fading leaves hanging on the tree branches and be blown down to the ground by the wind; a haven which is full of dead leaves and finally is covered by the white snow. I even can feel the chilly of autumn wind and winter snow, and my world becomes silent and peaceful all of a sudden. Normally, death is a sad and scary thing. However, in this poem, because of the way the author writes and the atmosphere he creates, the death of leaves becomes to a peaceful thing that is much more acceptable. They are just resting in their belonging, the haven, and having a sweet lengthy winter dream.