Introductory Background

The Romantic poets reflected the time period in which they lived which was a time of open minded thinking, and an appreciation for the world surrounding. Keats most noticeably represents this in an Ode to Autumn through his admiration of the natural world. It is one of his simplest poems. There is one noticeable aspect of this poem that

Ode to Autumn (Jessica Jenney)

does not follow the Romantic literature set of characteristics which is the season that Keats’ chooses to admire. Normally the celebrated season of the Romantics is Spring because of it’s new beginnings and fresh development of new life forms. However, in this particular poem Keats finds the beauty and peace in the eminent ending of a season or life. “In the second stanza, the speaker describes the figure of Autumn as a female goddess.”(2) and later “In the third stanza, the speaker tells Autumn not to wonder where the songs of spring have gone, but instead to listen to her own music.” (2) This highlights what Keats is trying to make a point of that excepting that all things come to an end is not a weakness, and does not take away from the true beauty that is in life.” Two days after this ode was composed, Keats wrote to J.H. Reynolds: “I never liked stubble fields so much as now – Aye, better than the chilly green of the spring. Somehow a stubble plain looks warm – in the same way that some pictures look warm – This struck me so much in my Sunday’s walk that I composed upon it.”” (Pg 925 Norton).

Ode to Autumn

1
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, 5
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; 10
For Summer has o’erbrimm’d their clammy cells.

2

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 winnowing1 wind; 15
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 twinèd flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook; 20
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.

3

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 25
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; 30
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft2;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Annotated Words with their Meanings

1.Winnow– An ancient agricultural technique that utilized a fan to separate grain from the rest of the plant. In relation to Keats, it is of interest because it was used by the ancient Greeks, a subject prominent in his writing. Supposedly this technique was used in the rites of Bacchus (Dionysus). This technique is also referenced in literary works like Homer’s The Odyssey. In this poem it is emphasizing the strength and power of the wind.

A Man Winnowing

2.Garden-Croft– An enclosed plot of farmland.

Structure

3 Stanzas, 11 lines long
First 4 lines of each stanza are ABAB rhyme scheme
Following the first 4 lines in the first stanza are seven lines in CDEDCCE form.
Following the first 4 lines in the final two stanzas are seven lines in CDECDDE form.
The first four lines seem to set the stage for the next seven.
The subject is presented in the first four lines, while others elaborate.

Themes

Nature and its beauty – similar to its evidence in “Ode to a Nightingale,” nature is a major influence in this poem as well. Each stanza is filled with vivid images of the changes in the season as Keats observed them happening. Any reader will have a more profound appreciation of the season change after reading this ode. Keats is revealing that beauty will never die even though mortal beings will. Beauty transcends and is forever through nature. People can be beautiful but they will eventually die beautiful, where as nature can be beautiful forever. There is daily observation of the activity of nature subtly introduced throughout the poem.
Feelings of an approaching loss – a common feeling at this time of year expressed in many works of art, perhaps most famously Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Many things are dying during this season so there is an inevitable tone of loss spanning the changes in nature. Keats makes it obvious that death is inevitable. Living things should be appreciated because you never know how long it will last. Appreciate the beauty of nature while you are alive to realize it. The reaping of the grain in the poem symbolizes death throughout the poem. The fact that he did choose autumn to write an ode to emphasizes his thoughts on immpending death because autumn is a time of death and change for nature. It is part of the cycle that is most beautiful when everything is bare and life gets a chance to start over. It is the feeling of loss and than harvest out of grief.

Analysis

The poem begins by exploring the positivity of the rich and mellow Spring, fruit ripening, flowers blossoming. Keats begins by invigorating the senses of the reader, emphasizing the robustness of the fruit in phrases like “ripeness to the core,” “swell,” and “plump” (lines 6-7). He is drawing attention to the fruit when it is most appealing and ripe, yet still subtly alluding to the fact that it has peaked and a change is due to come. Keats even ends the first stanza by saying that “Summer has o’erbrimm’d their clammy cells,” meaning that the end of the seasons of growth has pushed the elements past their points of ripeness (line 11).
The second stanza brings the reader into the next season, fall, the harvest. In here, Keats admires the “soft-lifted” hair of the wheat in the harvest (line 10). The wheat has already been rooted from the ground, laying on the ground of a granary. This stage of nature, things being taken out of the ground yet still providing nourishment demonstrates the transition from ripe and plentiful to cold and destitute. This stanza, much like the season it represents, is a substantial demonstration of the transitions that occur.
When the third stanza begins, it represents the familiar sentiments of yearning for warmer days, wondering where the days of spring have gone. However, the speaker immediately dismisses this, recognizing the beauty within the end of autumn. Unusual characteristics are attributed to colder weather, such as “stubble-plains” and a “rosy hue” in order to provide a warmer side to Autumn, while still communicating that it is fading.
Keats then describes the “full grown-lambs” and in the last line “And gathering swallows twitter in the skies,” he refers to the birds gathering for migration. This alludes to the inevitable end of Autumn and beginning of Winter. Though the poem is about a coming loss, Keats is in the process of coming to accept something even greater; that even though death comes to everyone, accepting mortality is not weak and it is wise to accept the passing of time and recognize the beauty of nature and life itself. True to romantic writers, Keats learns to accept death by living in beauty. Keats uses true imagination to describe the setting of nature so eloquently. There is so much feeling that comes out of the words that reflects the whimsical structure of romantic times.

References

The Norton Anthology of British Literature. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt and M.H. Abrams. 8th ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006. 903-05.

“Ode to Autumn.” John Keats from E-Scoala. http://www.e-scoala.ro/engleza/keats_ode.html

Picture Credits

Ode to Autumn. Photograph by Jessica Jenney (used by permission)
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/ode-to-autumn-jessica-jenney.html

1. Winnow via https://sites.udel.edu/britlitwiki/files//2018/06/winnow.gif

Contributors:
Ronnie Fricke
Jamie Hannigan
Arianne Minch
Danielle Leahey
Susanna Doyle