Editing Autumn (section)

===Melancholia===
[[File:Józef Chełmoński - Jesień 1875.jpg|thumb|400px|left|"Jesień" (Autumn) [[Józef Chełmoński]] [[Oil painting|picture]] of [[1875]] presenting a typical view of autumn in the Polish 19th-century [[countryside]]]]
Autumn, especially in poetry, has often been associated with [[melancholia]]. The possibilities and opportunities of summer are gone, and the chill of winter is on the horizon. Skies turn grey, the amount of usable daylight drops rapidly, and many people turn inward, both physically and mentally.<ref>[http://www.symbolism.org/writing/books/sp/4/page2.html Cyclical Regenerative Time – (c) Autumn] (from 'Symbolism of Place', symbolism.org website)</ref> It has been referred to as an unhealthy season.<ref>{{Cite journal|url = http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=did;cc=did;rgn=main;view=text;idno=did2222.0002.576|title = Autumn|year = 2013|access-date = 31 March 2015|journal = The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project|publisher = Michigan Publishing|last = D'Alembert|first = Jean Le Rond|editor-last = Holtrop|editor-first = Ellen|orig-date = 1751}}</ref>

Similar examples may be found in Irish poet [[William Butler Yeats|W.B. Yeats]]' poem ''[[The Wild Swans at Coole (poem)|The Wild Swans at Coole]]'' where the maturing season that the poet observes symbolically represents his own ageing self. Like the natural world that he observes, he too has reached his prime and now must look forward to the inevitability of old age and death. French poet [[Paul Verlaine]]'s "''[[Chanson d'automne]]''" ("Autumn Song") is likewise characterised by strong, painful feelings of sorrow. [[John Keats|Keats]]' ''[[To Autumn]]'', written in September 1819, echoes this sense of melancholic reflection but also emphasises the lush abundance of the season. The song "[[Autumn Leaves (1945 song)|Autumn Leaves]]", based on the French song "Les Feuilles mortes", uses the melancholic atmosphere of the season and the end of summer as a metaphor for the mood of being separated from a loved one.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.kcrw.com/music/2017/09/the-original-autumn-leaves/|access-date=8 September 2018|title=The Original "Autumn Leaves"|date=19 September 2017}}</ref>