Fall Cryptogram

A fall line in a letter-swap code: type your guesses in the boxes, or print it with its answer key.

Fall Cryptogram

Name Date

Every letter stands for another letter, and no letter stands for itself. Work out the code to read the message.

2 of 17 letters filled in

,,,,,,,-!

Solve it to see who said it.

Type a guess in any box and every box with the same code letter fills in. Arrow keys move between boxes.

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Letters given at the start

0 of 43 quotes solved

Keep track of the code here:

CodeABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Letter

Answer key

No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, no fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds—November!

Thomas Hood, November. The last line of the poem.

CodeBCDGHJLMNPQRSTUVY
LetterDNSALWBHFEMOURVTI

Next step Unscramble fall wordsPut your own fall message in code

All 43 quotes

Summer's End 7

  • At eve, cool shadows fall across the garden wall, and on the clustered grapes to purple turning George Arnold, September. Eve is evening.
  • By all these lovely tokens September days are here, with summer's best of weather and autumn's best of cheer. Helen Hunt Jackson, September. Tokens are signs.
  • From dewy lanes at morning the grapes' sweet odors rise; at noon the roads all flutter with yellow butterflies Helen Hunt Jackson, September.
  • The goldenrod is yellow, the corn is turning brown, the trees in apple orchards with fruit are bending down Helen Hunt Jackson, September.
  • The morns are meeker than they were, the nuts are getting brown; the berry's cheek is plumper, the rose is out of town. Emily Dickinson, Autumn.
  • When chestnuts were ripe I laid up half a bushel for winter. Henry David Thoreau, Walden.
  • When the summer fields are mown, when the birds are fledged and flown, and the dry leaves strew the path Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Aftermath. A fledged bird has grown the feathers it needs to fly.
Show all 43 quotes (36 more)

October 10

  • In October I went a-graping to the river meadows, and loaded myself with clusters more precious for their beauty and fragrance than for food. Henry David Thoreau, Walden. A-graping means picking grapes.
  • In October, the leaves falling, the apples are more distinct on the trees. Henry David Thoreau, Wild Apples.
  • Nature herself holds her annual fair in October, not only in the streets, but in every hollow and on every hill-side. Henry David Thoreau, Autumnal Tints.
  • O suns and skies and clouds of June, and flowers of June together, ye cannot rival for one hour October's bright blue weather Helen Hunt Jackson, October's Bright Blue Weather.
  • October gave a party; the leaves by hundreds came—the Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples, and leaves of every name. George Cooper, October's Party.
  • October turned my maple's leaves to gold; the most are gone now; here and there one lingers Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Maple Leaves.
  • The Scarlet Oak asks a clear sky and the brightness of late October days. Henry David Thoreau, Autumnal Tints.
  • The Sunshine spread a carpet, and everything was grand, Miss Weather led the dancing, Professor Wind the band. George Cooper, October's Party.
  • When gentians roll their fringes tight to save them for the morning, and chestnuts fall from satin burrs without a sound of warning Helen Hunt Jackson, October's Bright Blue Weather. A gentian is a plant with blue or violet flowers.
  • When on the ground red apples lie in piles like jewels shining, and redder still on old stone walls are leaves of woodbine twining Helen Hunt Jackson, October's Bright Blue Weather. Woodbine is a climbing plant.

Leaves and Color 10

  • A queen might be proud to walk where these gallant trees have spread their bright cloaks in the mud. Henry David Thoreau, Autumnal Tints.
  • The Chestnuts came in yellow, the Oaks in crimson dressed; the lovely Misses Maple in scarlet looked their best George Cooper, October's Party.
  • Down they have come on all sides, at the first earnest touch of autumn's wand, making a sound like rain. Henry David Thoreau, Autumnal Tints.
  • Flowers are but colored leaves, fruits but ripe ones. Henry David Thoreau, Autumnal Tints.
  • Heaped in the hollows of the grove, the autumn leaves lie dead; they rustle to the eddying gust, and to the rabbit's tread William Cullen Bryant, The Death of the Flowers. An eddying gust is a whirling puff of wind.
  • "I'll tell you how the leaves came down," the great Tree to his children said Susan Coolidge, How the Leaves Came Down.
  • If I were a drawing-master, I would set my pupils to copying these leaves, that they might learn to draw firmly and gracefully. Henry David Thoreau, Autumnal Tints.
  • It is pleasant to walk over the beds of these fresh, crisp, and rustling leaves. Henry David Thoreau, Autumnal Tints.
  • The maple wears a gayer scarf, the field a scarlet gown. Emily Dickinson, Autumn.
  • So many have fallen in the woods, that a squirrel cannot run after a falling nut without being heard. Henry David Thoreau, Autumnal Tints.

First Frost 7

  • Besides the autumn poets sing, a few prosaic days a little this side of the snow and that side of the haze. Emily Dickinson, November. Prosaic means plain.
  • The frost touches them, and, with the slightest breath of returning day or jarring of earth's axle, see in what showers they come floating down! Henry David Thoreau, Autumnal Tints.
  • Long has paled that sunny sky: echoes fade and memories die. Autumn frosts have slain July. Lewis Carroll, the closing poem of Through the Looking-Glass.
  • The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year, of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown and sere. William Cullen Bryant, The Death of the Flowers. Sere means dry.
  • No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, no fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds—November! Thomas Hood, November. The last line of the poem.
  • November woods are bare and still, November days are clear and bright, each noon burns up the morning's chill Helen Hunt Jackson, Down to Sleep.
  • When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock James Whitcomb Riley, When the Frost is on the Punkin. Punkin is pumpkin; a shock is a stack of sheaves left to dry.

Wind and Wild Birds 9

  • And painted ducks, too, the splendid wood-duck among the rest, often come to sail and float amid the painted leaves Henry David Thoreau, Autumnal Tints.
  • Fly away, fly away over the sea, sun-loving swallow, for summer is done; come again, come again, come back to me, bringing the summer and bringing the sun. Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song.
  • O Wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ode to the West Wind. The first line.
  • The robin and the wren are flown, and from the shrubs the jay, and from the wood-top calls the crow through all the gloomy day. William Cullen Bryant, The Death of the Flowers.
  • These are the days when birds come back, a very few, a bird or two, to take a backward look. Emily Dickinson, Indian Summer.
  • Thine almoner, the wind, scatters the golden leaves! Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Autumn. An almoner hands out gifts.
  • Thou comest, Autumn, heralded by the rain, with banners, by great gales incessant fanned Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Autumn. Incessant means never stopping.
  • Whither, midst falling dew, while glow the heavens with the last steps of day, far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue thy solitary way? William Cullen Bryant, To a Waterfowl. He is speaking to a wild bird flying at sunset.
  • Who has seen the wind? Neither I nor you: but when the leaves hang trembling the wind is passing thro'. Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song. Thro' is through.

How this list was compiled: Every line was matched word for word on 2026-09-30 against the Project Gutenberg plain-text edition it comes from (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/N, where N is): 22922 The Posy Ring; 2621 The Home Book of Verse, volume 3; 12242 Dickinson, Poems, Three Series; 1365 Longfellow, Complete Poetical Works; 76703 Rossetti, Sing-Song; 205 Thoreau, Walden; 34237 Golden Numbers; 2619 The Home Book of Verse, volume 1; 9846 Thoreau, Excursions; 16436 Poems Every Child Should Know; 29700 Bryant, Poetical Works; 12 Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass. Verse is printed as running text with line-opening capitals lowered. Every named author died before 1929; the years were read from the Project Gutenberg catalog pages, the dates The Home Book of Verse prints under each poem, or Wikipedia. The one-line notes are our own. Licence: own work

How it works

Each fall cryptogram hides a line about the season from a poem or nature book: falling leaves, October, first frost, wind and wild birds. It is an autumn cryptogram with no holiday in it. Two letters are given to start.

Read the full guide

Five lists of fall lines

Each puzzle is one line from five lists. Summer's End has goldenrod, grapes and nuts getting brown. October holds a party where the leaves by hundreds came. Leaves and Color is mostly Thoreau, who liked to walk over fresh, crisp, and rustling leaves. First Frost runs on into November, and Wind and Wild Birds asks who has seen the wind.

Where to start

A lone code letter is A or I. Several lines name the month: a seven-letter word whose first and fourth letters match is probably OCTOBER, and that one guess gives you six letters. Check tells you if a guess is wrong, and Hint gives one letter away.

  • One line says no eight times before it reaches November. If a two-letter word keeps coming back, try NO.
  • For another line, press Show answer and then New puzzle.

Questions and answers

Can I print a fall cryptogram with its answer?

Yes. Print puzzle gives a sheet with a name and date line, the coded line and an A to Z tracker grid. The answer key prints on a second page unless you untick Print the answer key too, under More options after a solve.

Where do the fall lines come from?

From poems and nature books by authors who died before 1929, among them Thoreau, Emily Dickinson, Helen Hunt Jackson, Christina Rossetti, Longfellow and Bryant. Each line was matched word for word against its Project Gutenberg text on 30 September 2026.

Are there Thanksgiving or Halloween lines?

No. This page is the season alone: leaves, orchards, frost and wind. The Thanksgiving cryptogram and the Halloween cryptogram are pages of their own, and no line here is on either.

Why do some lines end without a period?

Verse is printed as running text, and a puzzle stops where the poet's sentence runs on. The words and punctuation are the book's; only the capital that opens each line of verse is lowered.

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