TO AUTUMN 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-lifted 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. http://www.bartleby.com/106/255.html, visited May 13, 2006

John Keats

Having read only the title we can expect that the poem will be going to refer to the season of Autumn. We can not know whether he will talk to Autumn with negative aspects or positive ones, we do not know if it is going to be a friend or an enemy, but the fact is that John Keats talks to Autumn as if this season were a person. This personification of Autumn is an allegory, John Keats is the sender and Autumn is the direct receiver of this poem.

The first reading of the poem gives me the information of that Autumn is certainly his friend, John Keats is writing about the good aspects of this season in the whole poem. And as a Romantic poet, the best of Autumn can be appreciated in nature.

The topic of the poem is the time reflected in nature, we can see poetry in the flowers of Spring, the golden light of Summer, but, why Autumn could not be poetry by itself too? Autumn does not mean the beginning of the death of what Spring and Summer have been giving life, there is still life in Autumn, but sometimes we do not appreciate it.

I think the author wants to highlight those things we can not see, those little things in nature we usually think are not important, but they are important for him, those things are part of nature and that is why they are important.

The first verse: “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”, means that when Autumn comes to us, we do not see the great light during all the day as we can see in Summer, there is fog, mist in the mornings but it does not stop the process of maturing things. But that process is not possible without the help of the sun. That sun is conspiring with Autumn, it gives Autumn the sufficient heat needed in this moment, as if they were lovers, they “load and bless” (verse 3) and do together all the actions explained in this paragraph. They are part of natural circle of life and they occur in Autumn, only in Autumn.

The author tries to convince us about the importance of Autumn, all things related with nature are important, we can not forget the smallest detail of nature.

Verses 8, 9, 10 and 11 are about the role of bees in Autumn, Autumn can keep some of the heat of Summer and they feel warm more time: “for Summer has o’er-brimmed their clammy cells” (verse 11). Autumn is not as cold as Winter, we can still feel the heat in this season, we can still feel the life in this season.

The second paragraph starts with a rhetorical question: “Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?” (verse 12), is like saying: Who can not see yourself in your proud? who can not see your spectacular looking?, who does not appreciate you?. He is encouraging Autumn because “she” can feel disdained if we compare her with the joy of Spring and Summer.

In this second paragraph I confirm that Autumn is seen as a female character because in verses 14 and 15 there are two words: “careless”, and “hair soft-lifted”, usually used referring to the female genre. She is preparing herself to fall asleep in Winter, she is making good use of the last drops of Summer to give way to Winter: “… with a patient look, thou watches the last oozings hours by hours” (verses 21 and 22).

In the third paragraph again the importance of Autumn on us is highlighted. In Spring, everybody is happy, but Autumn has not why to be sad, and has not anything to envy Spring, “think not of them (songs of Spring), thou hast thy music too” (verse 24).

But, “where are the songs of Spring?” (verse 23), they had completely disappeared in Autumn, but as the author says, Autumn has its songs too. From now to the end of the poem, John Keats is answering the question: how are the songs of Autumn?

Autumn has a colour “rosy hue” (verse 26), when the day is disappearing, in Autumn dusk, the “death” of the day is like the bloom of the sky because it is rosy, it has a beautiful colour and a beautiful sound as we will see.

“The small gnats” (verse 27) are disappearing because they live only in Spring and Summer. They mourn as a “wailful choir” (verse 27) because they can not be present in Autumn, they are sad because they can not see any Autumn; “the light wind” (verse 30) is a typical sound in Autumn, and in the rest of verses are written the other great sounds that compose “the songs of Autumn”.

All these sounds are not as happy as can be the Spring ones, but when we read the whole poem and this particular part, we receive Autumn as a season of peace and serenity, a season where nature, and probably human minds, starts maturing.

Before I read it, I thought that John Keats will be going to talk about the sadness of Autumn, because Autumn is the season where nature begins to die. But instead of this, he is trying to convince us that Autumn has many wonderful things as Spring, Summer, and even Winter.

And the best way to behold Autumn in all its proud is in nature. He is talking about nature in the entire poem, nature is important because it “touches” us, involves us, and has a lot of influence in our lives and especially in our feelings.

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