This poem describes falling leaves from a tree on a still afternoon, which leads the narrator to think of the many British soldiers dying in World War I. The falling leaves are used as a metaphor for the dead soldiers, their numbers and beauty "strewed" across the Flemish fields. Though quiet and understated, the poem conveys the despair and grief felt by those waiting at home for news of the war. It was written by Margaret Postgate Cole, an English politician and writer who opposed conscription during WWI.

1. ‘Falling Leaves’

2. Note: Wordsworthian Pastoralism
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
…
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
• Verses 1 and 4 William Wordsworth’s ‘I wandered lonely’ (1815)
• The poet goes for a walk by Grasmere in the Lake District: daffodils.
• Later, he reflects and feels joy.
• Echoed by Postgate Cole, but the emotion is inverted.

3. Note: Brown

4. Form and Structure
• One sentence, so a single intense thought.
• One verse of 12 lines with alternating 6, 10 syllables (influenced by
syllabic poetry e.g. tenku, haiku, popular with imagists – see later
slide)
• About half the lines are enjambed, half are not – contemplative,
stop/go feeling.
• fairly complicated rhyming scheme: interlocking triplets
ABCABCDEFDEF
• First six lines about leaves perhaps are peaceful: sounds are gentle.
• Last six lines are about soldiers: more angry in tone/violent lexicon.

5. November 1915
Today, as I rode by,
I saw the brown leaves dropping from their tree
In a still afternoon,
When no wind whirled them whistling to the sky,
But thickly, silently,
They fell, like snowflakes wiping out the noon;
Pastoral imagery bleeds
into thinking about the
contemplation of the
death toll in Flanders.
War was everywhere in
1915.
The poet uses an extended
metaphor: the falling
leaves symbolise the dying
British soldiers.
‘I’ suggests the poet is the narrator, hence writing from a woman’s perspective = the
despair, anguish and endurance of waiting, wondering and grieving, not agony of
trench warfare
Lines 3 and 4 make it
clear that what is
happening is strange,
unnatural, against nature
Alliteration of the sound
‘wh’ (usually found in
question-words)
emphasises oddity of
their fall – assonance of
i’s builds whispered
sound of falling
Simile suggests (emotion of ) cold/ falling in such
number that they blot out the light from the sun.
(There were 1,000,000 British casualties in
1915…)
set during World War 1.
There are many present
participles in this poem –
what it describes is
actively happening.
Double meaning: ‘fell’
also euphemism for ‘died’

6. And wandered slowly thence
For thinking of a gallant multitude
Which now all withering lay,
Slain by no wind of age or pestilence,
But in their beauty strewed
Like snowflakes falling on the Flemish clay.
Slow/thoughtful walk
Emphasises
number.
‘withering’ links back to idea of
dead leaves.
‘Slain’ – archaic, but
harsh - contrasts with
gentleness of first few
lines.
‘pestilence’
= Biblical epidemic.
(One of the three
‘Horsemen of the
Apocalypse’)
Sibilance  threat?
‘beauty’ suggests her
admiration, ‘strewed’ =
thrown around carelessly
Repetition for emphasis of notions of melting, of vast
numbers, of death passed over in silence, of quick
loss.
Cold and wind  metonym for winter.
There were three
major battles in the
Flemish province of
Ypres in WW1. Also
Biblical word, so
serious tone.
Praise: the old-fashioned, formal word ‘gallant’
means ‘brave, chivalrous, stately’  dignity
and gravity of men

7. Theme and Meanings
• In this poem, a pastoral/country moment whilst out riding – a
tree dropping its leaves – leads to thoughts of the multitudes
of soldiers dying in the trenches.
• Focuses on the quiet despair, anguish and endurance of
women, waiting, wondering and grieving.
• Its power comes from its understatement, its use of a single
extended metaphor throughout.
• Connects to other poems about death (Futility) and the
response female writers make to conflict (Poppies), contrasts
with poems about violence (Bayonet Charge)

8. • an English politician and writer who campaigned against
conscription during the First World War.
• studied at Cambridge and worked as a teacher, before
entering politics in 1941.
• Her brother, Raymond Postgate was imprisoned briefly
during the First World War as a conscientious objector: a
court didn’t accept that his atheism and socialist views
were a valid reason for not fighting.
• She changed her mind about pacifism later, during the
Spanish Civil War.
Dame Margaret Postgate Cole (1893-
1980)

9. Poetic Context
• This poem is influenced by Imagism, an early
20th-century Anglo-American poetry
movement that
– favoured precision of imagery and clear, sharp language.
– experimented with new forms such as free verse.
– often tried to isolate a single image to reveal its essence.
– was influenced by visual art and poetry in other languages
such as Japanese Haiku.
– Fed into early Modernism.