Autumn Song — Summary

In Sarojini Naidu’s “Autumn Song,” autumn becomes a picture of beauty crossed with loss. The sunset hanging on a cloud is described as “a joy on the heart of a sorrow,” and the falling leaves make “a golden storm” — lovely, fragile, and fleeting. That mix of brightness and sadness sets the mood. The speaker then hears the wind as a voice calling to her heart. She feels weary, sad, and alone because her dreams, like those fluttering leaves, have gone. The question at the end — “And why should I stay behind?” — is full of longing, as if she no longer has a reason to remain when everything she hoped for has already fallen away. The poem leaves a quiet ache: autumn outside mirrors the emptiness inside.