Spring, summer, winter – each season leaves an impression as its time passes. Many are left with memories and feelings of wonder from each given season; for John Keats, that season is fall. In his poem “To Autumn,” Keats gives elaborate descriptions of the awe and beauty of fall, and evokes in the reader a sense of majesty associated with the season. Keats conveys this impression through his brilliant use of archaic language, the structure and tone in which it is written, his meticulous selection of details and the careful way in which he compiles them, as well as in the profound symbols and images his weaves throughout the entirety of the poem. “To Autumn” is an apostrophe as well as an ode to fall, because it is meant to be sung, the structure,
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Keats’ ability to describe autumn in such a splendid manner inspires his readers to analyze each and every word and description for further insight. Even as the poem begins, there are brilliant descriptions to set the scene, “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” (lines 5-10). Instantly, the reader is given the image of a tree so ripe with apples it is bending at its trunk, and of fruit so ripe it is swelling and plump. Also, the reader sees weather so nice it is as if the creatures have forgotten a time where the situation was otherwise. In this passage, the word “budding” seems to be prominent. Though it is mentioned in passing, it seems to be the basis of the entire poem. Each stanza, whether discussing fruit or flowers, mentions whose origins are a bud. In the first stanza it is the fruit swelling and the harvest becoming ripe. The second stanza discusses the flowers and fruit in the act of being harvested. And here, in the last stanza, the bud has already ripened and been picked. After fall has come and is beginning to leave, Keats mentions the “stubble plains” (line …show more content…
The poem is written in a way which mimic the stages of harvest – the fruit maturing, fulfilling its essence as fruit, and finally, what is left behind after the fruit is no longer there. After examining these stages closely, the readers find these are the stages of conventional human life – maturing, entering society as a functioning member, then exiting as one’s time comes to an end. Keats was writing this poem shortly after his brother died of tuberculosis, and after he learned he too had contracted the same disease. The poem acts as Keats’ way of coming to terms with his death. He relives his days as a young man in the first stanza, maturing, “ripening,” preparing to become an adult. He then recounts his later life, after having entered into society all of his “ripeness” had been harvested and his life is passing by ever so slowly. This trepidation of the mundane is seen on line 21 when he says “Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.” He is watching his life go by at such a slow pace it seems only to be oozing, and the only action he take is to watch it pass by with little meaning. The third stanza refers to his time with consumption. The harvest has been completed, his life has passed by, and now all that is left is the land where he once was. The “stubble plains,” “the
Keats’ ability to describe autumn in such a splendid manner inspires his readers to analyze each and every word and description for further insight. Even as the poem begins, there are brilliant descriptions to set the scene, “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” (lines 5-10). Instantly, the reader is given the image of a tree so ripe with apples it is bending at its trunk, and of fruit so ripe it is swelling and plump. Also, the reader sees weather so nice it is as if the creatures have forgotten a time where the situation was otherwise. In this passage, the word “budding” seems to be prominent. Though it is mentioned in passing, it seems to be the basis of the entire poem. Each stanza, whether discussing fruit or flowers, mentions whose origins are a bud. In the first stanza it is the fruit swelling and the harvest becoming ripe. The second stanza discusses the flowers and fruit in the act of being harvested. And here, in the last stanza, the bud has already ripened and been picked. After fall has come and is beginning to leave, Keats mentions the “stubble plains” (line …show more content…
The poem is written in a way which mimic the stages of harvest – the fruit maturing, fulfilling its essence as fruit, and finally, what is left behind after the fruit is no longer there. After examining these stages closely, the readers find these are the stages of conventional human life – maturing, entering society as a functioning member, then exiting as one’s time comes to an end. Keats was writing this poem shortly after his brother died of tuberculosis, and after he learned he too had contracted the same disease. The poem acts as Keats’ way of coming to terms with his death. He relives his days as a young man in the first stanza, maturing, “ripening,” preparing to become an adult. He then recounts his later life, after having entered into society all of his “ripeness” had been harvested and his life is passing by ever so slowly. This trepidation of the mundane is seen on line 21 when he says “Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.” He is watching his life go by at such a slow pace it seems only to be oozing, and the only action he take is to watch it pass by with little meaning. The third stanza refers to his time with consumption. The harvest has been completed, his life has passed by, and now all that is left is the land where he once was. The “stubble plains,” “the