Emotion was the key element of any Romantic poet, the intensity of which is present in all of Keats poems. Keats openly expressed feelings ignoring stylistic rules which suppressed other poets.

Keat's poems display a therapeutic experience, as many of his Odes show a sense of struggle to accept, and a longing to search for an emotion which he could feed off for his eternity. As romantics emphasised beauty in order to replace the lack of religion. The quote `A thing of beauty is a joy forever`, I believe tormented him ever since he wrote `Endymion`, the Odes to be discussed are hence almost a progression of thought and understanding of his own beliefs.

'Ode to Autumn' is perhaps the greatest of nature poems written , and I can only agree when Cedric Watts wrote that it is a `richly resourceful yet alert and unsentimental'. Keats creates a sumptuousness which reflects the beauty he has found in Autumn. The intonation within the first stanza is almost of excitement, as if this beauty has suddenly unleashed itself onto his senses, its effect is more powerful than the drug induced mood in `Nightingale`. The first lin

e introduces us to the personified autumn. The exclamatory phrase `mellow fruitfulness` heightens the syntax tone immediately and prepares the reader for a stanza rich in tactile and visual images which intensify this opening.

The beauty of autumn is emphasised through phrases like; `ripeness to the core`, `swell the gord`, ` o'verbrimmed their clammy cells'. Keat's use of the adjective `plump` as a verb excels this `ripeness` and together intensifies the beauty, which is emphasised through the repetition of `more` and `still more`. Keats almost forces his subject at us.

The use of `drowsed' is deliberate and for emphasis, to achieve this tiredness, as does the sensual smells of `poppies`.

Keats deliberately confuses the reader's assumptions of the poem by introducing a melancholic mood. The `melodious plot' is emphasised through the rhythm of the poem and the extended use of vowel sounds prior to the `melodious plot. The repetition of `happy' is almost a forceful emphasis to cancel the earlier negatives. Keat's distinguished use of paradoxes, is evident here too: ` `tis not through envy of thy happy lot, But being too happy in thine happiness'. Keats has found joy in the innocence of the nightingale, who `among the leaves hast never known, the weariness, the fever and the fret here, where men sit and hear each other groan'. The bird is oblivious to the pain and death. The nightingale's song has been heard by himself 'emperor and clown' and also by the biblical 'Ruth', the beauty, its song has mesmerised and consoled many. I believe Keat's attempts to find a lasting joy in the nightingales song, hence: `thou wast not born for death, immortal bird'. He wishes its song never to end, and when it flees the question `Do I wake or sleep`, I believe is Keats questioning, now that he is out of its trance, has he awakened to the reality of everyday existence. Where 'youth grows pale, and spectre - thin, and dies'? The deliberate punctuated pauses before the conjunction slows the reader and hence echos his brothers Toms death, soon to be his. Therefore the lines: `Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes, or new love pine at them beyond to-morrow', show the inevitable change of time and hence the loss of beauty.

Beauty is trapped within the `urn`, `fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare'. The `urn` has everlasting love and nature. The two experiences which evoke joy. This joy is interrupted by the perilous questions, as we visualise the ritual sacrifice, of a `heifer lowing at the skies, and all her silken flanks with garlands drest?` It seems odd that beauty of the garlands is juxtaposed with death.

Cedric Watts: `The stanza's can be seen as movement throughout the seasons, beginning with pre-harvest ripeness, moving to the repletion of harvest itself, and concluding with the emptiness following harvest, but preceding winter'.

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Approximate Word count = 2491
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)