COMPARISON BETWEEN JOHN KEATS
AND WILLIAM BLAKE
TO
SUMMER
O thou, who passest thro’ our vallies in
Thy strength, curb thy fierce steeds, allay the heat
That flames from their large nostrils! thou, O Summer,
Oft pitched’st here thy golden tent, and oft
Beneath our oaks hast slept, while we beheld
With joy, thy ruddy limbs and flourishing hair.
Beneath our thickest shades we oft have heard
Thy voice, when noon upon his fervid car
Rode o’er the deep of heaven; beside our springs
Sit down, and in our mossy vallies, on
Some bank beside a river clear, throw thy
Silk draperies off, and rush into the stream:
Our vallies love the Summer in his pride.
Our bards are fam’d who strike the silver wire:
Our youth are bolder than the southern swains:
Our maidens fairer in the sprightly dance:
We lack not songs, nor instruments of joy,
Nor echoes sweet, nor waters clear as heaven,
Nor laurel wreaths against the sultry heat.
To Summer
William Blake
http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=3026&poem=13184
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-eaves
run;
To bend with apples the moss'd
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'erbrimm'd 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-reap'd furrow
sound asleep,
Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twinčd
flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-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 barrčd 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 redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
To Autumn
John
Keats
Source: http://www.bartebly.com/126/47.html
To begin with this
essay, we must compare two poems, one of them is about summer by William Blake,
and the other is about autumn by John Keats. Both poems deal with the same
theme; the enjoyment of a season and the
contemplation of nature.
As I said before, the theme in Blake’s
poem is the enjoyment of the summer
season and the contemplation of
nature due to several reasons;
Blake describes summer as a beautiful
season due to the vocabulary that he uses, i.e “curb thy fierce steeds, allay the heat” in the 1st
stanza, 2nd verse, “golden
tent” in the 1st stanza, 4th verse, “ruddy limbs and flourishing hair” in the 1st stanza, 6th
verse. In the 2nd stanza, 2nd verse it appears “fervid cars”, Blake is referring to a
harvest bug which only sings in summer.
Summer is very hot but through the
semantic fields of freshness we can feel cooler and the magic of the poem.
Summer is a special season because everybody enjoys the weather; people are in
contact with nature…
It seems that Blake talks about summer
from the point of view of how he lives summer; there is an obvious evidence in
the poem, “Silk draperies off, and rush
into the stream: our vallies love the Summer in his pride”, 2nd stanza, 6th
and 7th verse.
Another important thing is that Blake
describes nature, I mean the water running away between the mountains, swains,
the limbs … At the same time the poem is being read, we can imagine, feel and
enjoy summer. The poem gives us a pleasure impression even at the first sight.
The poem “To Autumn” by Keats
reflects the importance of nature
too. Keats defines the autumn season as a happy occasion; for Keats any contact
with nature defines happiness, through nature itself and not in concrete
situations or feelings which that season would promote, the same as Blake.
The landscape between both poems is
completely different but is described similarly. Keats is describing autumn as
a happy season too but at the same time it is a sad poem because he misses the
spring season, when all the flowers grow, everything is green… It is
controversial because at the same time Keats likes autumn; i.e
“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
redbreast whistles from a garden-croft; And gathering swallows twitter in the
skies.”, 3rd stanza , 5th –
11th verse.
As I said before, Keats loves autumn but
also is sad because winter is coming,
i.e; “Season of
mists and mellow fruitfulness”1st stanza, 1st verse; “Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun”,
1st stanza, 2nd verse; “And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days
will never cease; For Summer has o'erbrimm'd their
clammy cells” 1st stanza, 9th- 11th verse.
In contrast to Blake’s poem, “To Autumn”
gives a nostalgic and sad impression, as if Keats feared to be in winter. To
conclude, winter appears here as a metaphor of death, as a life
journey.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
· To Summer – William Blake – Poem by. Poemhunter.com, 2004
http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=3026&poem=13184
29.05.06
· 47. To Autumn. Keats, John. 1884. The
Poetical Woks of John Keats
http://www.bartleby.com/126/47.html 29.05.06