TO AUTUMN

TO AUTUM by: John Keats (1795-1821)

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun:

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For Summer has o'er-brimmed their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

Thy hair soft-lipped by the winnowing wind;

Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep,

Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook

Spares the next swath and all its twinèd flowers:

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep

Steady thy laden head across a brook;

Or by a cider-press, with patient look,

Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,--

While barrèd clouds bloom the soft-dying day,

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn

Among the river sallows borne aloft

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Written by John Keats, the poem “To Autumn” consists of three stanzas. Each of them contains eleven verses whose rhyme scheme is a b a b c d e d c c e.

From a first reading, the poem seems to be dedicated to Autumn, the season. However, after a deep reading the poem gives us a picture of the different stages of life. In addition it seems to give us an advice: to live our lives actively until our last day. I would also state that John Keats believes in life after death because of the sweet and peaceful manner he uses to talk about it in the last verses.

The first stanza Keats presents a general description of Autumn “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”. In this stanza we can find many words associated with the sense of tact “bend” (line 5), fill (line 6), swell (line 7), plump (line 7). For instance, to bend something you have to touch it; you also have to touch an object to fill it. Moreover, one has to touch something to get a feel of the words swell, plump, and clammy. If you didn’t feel the object, you would never get a full understanding of the word. At the same time the fact of touching something implies activeness. Therefore, this stanza is probably associated with childhood as children are very active and they love to touch everything in their first years of life. (helpme)

The second stanza involves the sense of Sight “Seen” (line 12), “patient look” (line 20), “watchest” (line 22). The words show visual imagery because in order to act out the words, you must use your eyes. The first stanza implied activeness whereas this second stanza reflects more passiveness. For instance “sitting” (line 14), “sound asleep” (line 16), “dowsed” (line 17), “patient look” (line 21). Therefore, the second stanza is visually appealing stanza, and it is associated to the second stage of life, adulthood. At his stage of life we do not tend to touch everything as children do as we become more observant and tend to think before to act. (helpme)

The last stanza, “Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?” connotes melancholy of youth, taking into account that spring is immediately previous to summer. When he uses the term “songs” it also implies innocence and happiness. It also talks about youth finishing by using the metaphor “while barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day”, then Keats talks about the old age, next about death “the small gnats mourn”. Then Keats expresses the pain of the dearest people by expressing “and full-gown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; the last verse “and gathering swallows twitter in the skies” can be interpreted as a human death. However, Keats instead of referring to death as something painful and sad, he describes death as something peaceful and somehow happy “and gathering swallows twitter in the skies”. (helpme)

Essentially, the poem in general talks about the different periods of our life from the perspective of a mature person. Keats describes the three main stages of human live by associated them to the different senses so that childhood would be associated to the sense of sight; adulthood would be associated to the sense of tact and elderly and death are associated to the sense of hearing. Although it talks about when death arrives, Keats interprets death as natural fact making softer the effect of what the negative part of it by referring to the sky. The last stanza seems to create a special musicality to accompany the death. In addition, in the last verses we understand life continues for those who remain alive “hedge-crickets sing” and for those who go to the sky “and gathering swallows twitter in the skies”. Probably, the message Keats wants to transmit through his poem is that we should live our lives actively until our last breath, nevertheless life continues after death.

Sources:

http://www.john-keats.com/ Richard Konrad. 1-05-2006

http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=7648. help@123HelpMe.com. 1-05-2006

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Academic year 2005/2006