To Autumn

To Autumn

Task One:

Autumn leaves are like powerful yellow flames

Which can melt down the greatest glacier on earth

Autumn leaves are dancing to the wind

Though they are not ready to leave

Autumn leaves that fall to the ground peacefully

Are now crisp and crunchy

Where little animals scramble laughingly 

 "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-eves 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’er-brimm’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 winnowing wind;	15
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined 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 barred 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 red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Task Two: Similarities between our poems an "To Autumn"

• In the poem "To Autumn" there is an anthitesis in the words "lives" and "dies" and an oxymoron in the words "clouds bloom". In our first poem the words "flames" and "glacier" also have an antithetical meaning as when "flames" represents heat, "flames" represents coldness. 

• In the poem "To Autumn" there is a reference to animals in "full-grown lamps" and we can relate it to the "little animals" we incorporated in our last poem.

• The phrase "Though they are not ready to leave" in our second poem, reflects the idea that leaves are going to fall to the ground someday when winter is going to come, but not yet. This concept is also portrayed in Keats' poem in the words "soft-dying day" and "last oozings hours", reflecting the idea of something that will end soon. This can be thought both of the autumn that will end, or the idea of death, that somehow or other it will come as it's inevitable. 

• The idea of movement portrayed in our second poem in the word "dancing" is also present in the poem "To Autumn" in the "winnowing wind". In both poems the movement is presented through a kinesthetic image. 

• In our poems nature was used frequently as it's one of the main chareacteristics of romanticism, words as: "leaves", "glacier", "earth" and "wind". There are also many images in Keats' poetry related to nature as "maturing sun", "fruit", "apples", "granary floor" and "river".

• Auditory images are also present in our third poem in the words "crisp" and "crunchy" as in the phrase "Hedge-crickets sing" of Keats' poem.

End Task:

1) How does To Autumn differ from the other poems you have studied? 

In this poem Keats is not describing something from his imagination as he usually does in all of his poems, but describing a day of autumn. It's a simpler poem if we analyze it in that way as he’s simply describing the real world, instead of expressing his imagination or his dreams. There are several visual images of nature, which depict growth and vitality as "apple", "fruitfulness" and "trees", but he doesn't go beyond that. There are also concrete auditory images illustrating the vividness of autumn. Keats always keeps in mind the passage of time. He accepts how nature evolves following a cycle, the fact that autumn will come to an end somehow or other as well as death will soon arrive. Also, there’s no narrative voice in the poem.

2) I mentioned in a letter to my old pal Reynolds that the stubble fields in autumn looked "warm" to me. How do I communicate a sense of warmth in my poem? 

The fact that the word warm itself appears in the poem in "Warm days will never cease", suggests the idea of warmth. Although autumn is part of a cycle and will end soon, the reader knows it will come again the following year, therefore its end is not tragic but hopeful. Keats creates the warmness of the poem by using several visual images, most of them joyful. Words as "rosy hue", suggesting something pink, and "bloom", portray how beautiful autumn is. In the poem, winter is never mentioned directly, although the reader knows that’s going to come soon. Instead, spring is mentioned in “Where are the songs of Spring?” creating a cozier environment, against the coldness that winter brings in its meaning.

3) How do I use language to reflect the passage of time and a sense of an ever-changing world in this poem? 

The structure of the poem suggests the cycle of the day, illustrating the passing of time. The first stanza takes place during morning time, the second stanza during the afternoon, when the working day is drawing to an end and the last stanza is the end of the day.

There are many words through out the poem, which suggest that both the day and autumn are coming to an end, portraying the possibility of death. It suggests that as the end of a day will come somehow or other, death as well is inevitable. The word "maturing" refers to something old, which can end at any moment. The word "asleep" and the phrase "last oozings hours" support the idea of autumn ending, and that winter is approaching. There is a constant reminder of death, but not in a tragic way, if not of enjoyment of those last moments of life, as of autumn. Keats shows this clearly in "soft-dying day", a day that is coming to an end, autumn that is ending, and the fact that he's dying, but still, it doesn't affect the softness of it. The antithesis "lives or dies" suggests in a more literal way the idea of the passing of time. The fact that all the animals are singing, shown in "hedge-crickets sing" or "red-breast whistles", depicts that the day is coming to an end, as it's normal that animals sing at late afternoon, when night is approaching. 

4) Can you identify the "default" rhythm I create in To Autumn? Can you then find one instance where I change the rhythm to support or extend the meaning of the line(s)? 

The rhythm created in this poem is an iambic pentameter (lines consisting of 5 feet) as "SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness". However, as most of Keats' poetry there is a variation in the rhythm, so as, for instance, change its pace. The third line of the first stanza: "Conspiring with him how to load and bless" there is a variation to a tetrameter (lines consisting of 4 feet). We can also get to notice that most of the lines start with a stressed syllable as "Season" so as to emphasize the first word we read, to highlight it and give it importance.