Your teacher might be a bit creative when it comes to assignments. Essays with such intangible subjects are hard to imagine and develop as one would normally do. This type of task exists to challenge you to compose something that will be out of the ordinary, so you should not follow any particular rules, but rather set your fantasy free. How would you describe something as plain as autumn if you had some means at your disposal?
In this article we are going to describe autumn. Let us see how originally such task can be approached. In addition, below you will discover the 100% unique illustrations of each idea provided. Hope, they will stand you in a good stead and become abundant sources for your inspiration.
Personification
You could write about a season as if it were a person. So, think about Autumn as if it were a character, and before you start, ask a few simple questions about it. What is its gender? What is its hair color? How old is it? What personality would your Autumn have? You could imagine her as a young girl with long hair, its colors ranging from orange to brown, deep caramel eyes and a hobby to write sad poems about long lost love. Or, maybe, it is a sad lonely old man who lives in a lighthouse by the sea and watches the waves crash against pointy rocks. Invent!
Memories
You can always opt for the safest option and describe what autumn makes you personally feel. You probably have a lot of associations that come to you whenever you think of this season. It may be the smell of the rain, the cold wind or the delicious apple pie your grandmother used to bake. Or, maybe, you think about colorful fallen leaves, the beginning of school and finally getting to wear scarves and hats.
Through Recipes
You could describe autumn in unpredictable ways and make your readers guess what season you are talking about. For example, you could describe three dishes that you think are most traditional for the months of September, October and November. Apple cider, pumpkin pies, turkey and roasted potatoes spring into mind immediately, don’t they? However, you should remember that these tasty things can have a cultural overtone, so people of other cultures might not be able to associate them with autumn at all.
Impressions
Find out more about symbols of autumn in popular literature. Often autumn symbolizes death and the passing of time. Think about how a poet or writer could turn autumn into a literary device. For example, in a love story the coming of autumn may mean that love has faded away and winter, a cold season, is fast approaching. You could use this symbolism in the story to depict the true image of autumn.
Negative Aspects
You do not have to describe this season as if it were your favorite if you do not truly like it. A description of the negative aspects can still be a good description and adhere to the criteria that your teacher expects you to follow. You could write about how you hate going to school and about the stinging cold that comes after the pleasant summer season. Or think about why you may like autumn more or less than other seasons.
5 Draft Examples of the Descriptive Essay About Autumn
So, above we have considered 5 different ideas about you can compose a really interesting essay which would describe one particular season of the year. Now we will try to bring each of these ideas into life as successfully as possible. So, below you can see five examples of short descriptive essays about autumn, generally illustrating the main sense of each approach. Hope, you will find them helpful and inspiring. Good luck!
-
1. My Sister’s Name Is Autumn
Here is one little remark for you before we start. When working on a descriptive essay which provides that you are going to include some personal impressions or experiences into your writing you can easily write in the first person. This will add more character, originality and, probably, intimacy into your narrative. Now we are going to personify autumn.
I have always dreamed about an elder sister. That is not because I do not have good friends or because I usually feel so alone in this world – nothing of such kind. I have always associated the image of the Elder Sister with a wise young woman who could help me to put everything right and find the answers I need, however puzzled with my life I was. Now as I have got a bit older, it seems to me that the chaos around me, in which I live for about nine months a year, acquires logic and sense as soon as Autumn comes into our world.
My Autumn comes back after a long vacation or, maybe, a business trip on September 1st and asks me how my summer was. I show her my diary, my photos and some shells I picked up when we went to the sea with my parents. She reads my notes slowly and carefully, looks at the new people in the photos and asks again what was good or bad about them all. And I tell her, but it seems that she knows it all even better than me. We decide that it is better to put the diary on the darkest shelf and to tear the photos of those who hurt me, no matter whether deliberately or not. Then I take her favorite book and make her favorite tea. I am so happy that she will stay by me for three months.
-
2. Why Go to Sea in Autumn?
Here let us have a look at the example of the essay based on memories.
I used to associate the seaside only with the hot sunny weather and summer holidays until I went to the sea in autumn. I still remember that it was the very end of October when my parents took me to the small coastal town with them for a few days just to have some family rest. On the first day we rented a cheap but very cozy apartment, left our bags and literally ran to the empty beach. What we saw, heard, smelt and felt is difficult to describe with words.
The sea was slightly stormy. The waves were gracefully rolling on the beach, and it seemed that they wanted to welcome us. Their deep sound and mysterious rustling suddenly made me think that the sea was breathing just like a human being. The water was bluish-gray, but the color did not irritate. On the contrary, until today I think that if I was told to depict autumn as a person, I would draw a woman with the calm and wise eyes of this very color, but not yellow or brown. The cool air around us smelt with salt. We could even taste it on our lips, as the sudden blast of wind caught the splashes and left them on our faces. We simply forgot about our tiredness and could not keep our eyes off the magnificent scenery.
-
3. The Season Smelling of Black Evening Tea
Now we will try not to name the season but to describe it with the help of associations. Here we go!
Every morning gets grayer and foggier, and I have also noticed that the evening falls on the town much earlier than it did just a few weeks ago. Nothing seems to have changed, but still I can feel that there are some new colors around me, that people look differently in their coats and that the air smells with…tea, especially in the late evening. However, I probably should not wonder so much. I put a cup of my favorite black Indian tea near me when I am doing my homework. I order black tea with a beautiful berry aroma at the local cafe when we drop into it with my friends. And every Friday evening, after the family dinner mum brews some fresh tea for all three of us and we just chat about how the week was, waiting for the tea to get ready.
This is when the whole house starts to smell with warm sweetish odor. Then mum pours the wonderful drink into big cups and puts a jar of jam or honey on the table. It is our little Friday kitchen ceremony. It may be raining behind the window; cold wind may be singing its windy song. But in the kitchen it is warm and peaceful. It seems that the time has stopped and fidgety tomorrow will never come.
-
4. Autumn Means the Beginning and Not the End
Let us see what will happen if we turn our autumn into the metaphor.
My year starts on September 1st, and not on January 1st as it actually should. No, I do not mean the academic year. The thing is that when I say “last year”, I mean all that time before the day of September 1st. Probably, such my idea of time is somehow connected with the fact that our school starts in autumn, but there is something more in it than just the beginning of classes.
I have never understood clearly why autumn is associated with the end of literally everything. Its first two months are mostly spent on getting used to a new schedule and then to the fact that days get shorter. In November personally I start to feel that winter holidays are coming and there is really no time to yearn for something that will never come back. Besides, it appears that most of my good friends have their birthdays in autumn, so I can never escape that pleasant hustle and bustle of choosing and ordering presents for them. My autumn always passes by very fast, but still I am glad to have such beginning of my new and happy year!
-
5. Parting with Summer
In this example you will see how you can describe the rather pessimistic things about autumn.
Somehow somewhere I came across an idea that each summer is like a short life. Probably, it would not be so memorable for me unless I did not experience a strange feeling of loss each time I saw the magic date, September 1st, on my paper calendars or phone screen. It seems to me that I was sleeping for many days and woke up on the first morning of autumn. My dreams were bright and beautiful, but they ended abruptly as soon as my table alarm clock rang telling me that “It is September 1st today”.
I do not want to sound pessimistic and say that the arrival of autumn is equal to the death of summer. However, I cannot get rid of the feeling that something very important has gone away from me forever and there is no sense to look for it in my future, however good I believe it will be. It is when I realize that the power of time is much greater than we think, and it is not worth daring to compete with it.