Poetry Analysis

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Poetry Analysis

“To Autumn” is a scintillating poem written by John Keats. The fundamental purpose of the poem is offering an intricate account of the typical imagery of autumn. The autumn deliberated is the early stage where all the elements of Mother Nature have accomplished the state of maturity. Keats advances to personify autumn and further perceives it in a potential active state. In the very first stanza, autumn proceeds to deceive and conspire with the sun to make the rich fruits witness the tremendous phase of ripeness. Afterward, autumn is deemed a melodious musician which resembles the charm and remarkable ambiance of spring. In addition, the poem is rich in imagery. It potentially evokes the perceptions of hearing, sight, taste, smell and touch. Such magnificent is the manner of cultivating words and sound phrases in the poem. To Autumn reflects an explicit account of the tendency to explore, suggest and establish a rich abundance of themes pertinent to autumn without disturbing the gentle and calm description of the season.

To begin, the first stanza of the poem manifests the early phase of autumn. The weather is still warm and the bees wonder the summer will last forever. A critical appraisal of the stanza reveals that Keats aspires to highlight the wonderful sights of autumn. The fundamental aim of the author is to strike the chords of the heart of the reader in the very beginning. In the first stanza, each element processes through repetition as the vines, the sun, the grounds, the trees and the hives witnessing ripeness. The intimacy of autumn with the sun is essentially attributed here. For instance, autumn ripens rich fruits and causes the flowers to rise and bloom.

Moreover, the second stanza harnesses the characteristic nature of autumn. The process of ripening is accomplished in this stanza. Gleaning, threshing and cider making are the activities manifested in the advent of autumn. The author manages to successfully portray this message through a promising choice of words and theme. For instance, autumn is presented as the thresher resting on the granny floor, the reaper asleep in the grain field, the gleaner crossing the brook and finally the cider maker ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"TD6NbAmU","properties":{"formattedCitation":"({\\i{}VitalSource: The Norton Introduction to Literature, Shorter})","plainCitation":"(VitalSource: The Norton Introduction to Literature, Shorter)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":145,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/h6KbaPMu/items/XERI9E39"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/h6KbaPMu/items/XERI9E39"],"itemData":{"id":145,"type":"webpage","title":"VitalSource: The Norton Introduction to Literature, Shorter","URL":"https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780393289756/cfi/6/356!/4/2/2/2/2/2@0.00:0.00","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",3,11]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (VitalSource: The Norton Introduction to Literature, Shorter). These words and phrases explicitly illustrate the command of the author over the art of delivering the message in a crisp and detailed manner.

Furthermore, the last stanza of the poem makes autumn a musician. Autumn has ultimately progressed beyond harvest and ripeness. Alluding to spring, Keats reprimands autumn to commend her own beauty and sound. The sounds of the late autumn resemble the mournful sounds of the absolute completeness of nature. For instance, the day which had begun utterly mellow at the beginning of the poem has reached the soft-dying stage in the last. It is worthy of mentioning the intricate rhythm and structure utilized by Keats to bring the season and day to their soft dying end.

Besides, the poem is rich in imagery where every stanza demonstrates one of the senses. In the first stanza, the senses of touch and smell are evoked. For instance, the mellowness of ripe apples, sharp smell of the early morning and the sweet smell of flowers attracting the bees, all these elements merge collectively to urge the reader into believing summer will last forever. Nothing is stated static here. In the second stanza, Keats stresses the sense of sight by heartedly inviting the reader to deem autumn as the harvester, her hair lifted by the wind, cutting, checking and further gleaning the crops. A certain lassitude is evoked by the sights. The author performs a smooth transition. The prevalent frantic movements in the first stanza are gradually replaced by the stasis in the next stanza till time prefers not to move toward winter.

Similarly, a sound structure is deployed in the last stanza to complement the rich imagery. The time is perfect for harvesting and the afternoon is inducing sleep. In the last stanza, a reflection of the post-harvest melodies and evening is sketched. The act of creation is termed as a type of self-harvesting in the poem. The books are filled with grain while the pen harvest the field of the brain. The metaphor is further formulated by the sentiments of the grief which permeate the poem challenges the sadness underpinning the creativity of the season. The speaker, irrefutably, knew in melancholy, loss and abundance, song and silence, and joy and sorrow are closely connected as the twined flowers in a field.

To conclude, the aspect that makes the poem classically engage with the reader is the inclusion of the realm of fantasy and mythology into the realistic world. To Autumn is the simplest of odes written by Keats. There is no ambiguity in the author’s paean to the season with its flowers, fruitfulness and the melody of its swallows planning for migration. The soul of the poem is dedicated to the quieter activity of appreciation and daily appreciation. Keats essentially pays homage to a specific goddess, the defined days of autumn. The selection of the season implicitly engages the other odes' tone of mortality, temporality and change. The bottom line is that the author has mastered the art of ultimate comprehension that the acceptance of mortality is never destructive for the appreciation of the beauty and has further gleaned wisdom by submitting to the flow of time.

Works Cited

Keats, "To Autumn” ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY VitalSource: The Norton Introduction to Literature, Shorter, 1820,

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https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780393289756/cfi/6/356!/4/2/2/2/2/2@0.00:0.00. Accessed 11 Mar. 2019.