John Keats' "To Autumn"

A detailed Summary of John Keats' "To Autumn"

John Keats once said about Lord Byron, "He describes what he sees - I describe what I imagine, mine is the hardest task." "To Autumn" is evidence of his way of thinking, as the poem is a vivid, lyrical portrayal of the English autumn, as he imagined it. The poem is written on a very literal level. It can be examined as a whole work yet each stanza can also be examined individually as a separate phase of autumn. In "To Autumn" John Keats uses vivid language and sharp contrasts in his lyrical description of the phases of a very transitional season, autumn.

As a whole, the poem is "a lyrical description of autumn in terms of certain objects, processes, and events associated with that season, or at least with specific aspects of that season" (Moser). The poem celebrates autumn as a season of abundance, a season of reflection, a season of preparation for the winter, and a season worthy of admiration with comparison to what Romantic poetry often focuses upon - the spring. The poem utilizes many tactile words and phrases, as well as visual and auditory terms. Keats uses terms such as "mellow," "plump," "clammy," "mists," "sun," "moss'd cottage trees, ""wailful," and "loud bleat" (Keats 872). Through these images and

Although this poem seems to be quite simplistic: a literal description of the autumn, there is much of which to take note. Notice the vivid imagery. Notice the stark contrasts between life and death, beginning and end. Notice the independence of each phase of autumn. In three simple stanzas, Keats takes the reader on a vivid journey from autumn's abundant life to its fading death. It is a journey that takes us from beginning to end, with no part more or less beautiful than the next.

Within Keats' lyrical description of autumn, each phase can be examined exclusively. In the first stanza, Keats speaks of the beginning of autumn when everything is bursting with life and it seems the summer has poured over into the autumn. There is a lot of sensory imagery in the first stanza and immediately one pictures and almost smells the fruit and flowers bursting with flavor and aroma. Keats mentions in numerous lines, the fruit of the beginning of autumn. He speaks of "mellow fruitfulness" and "fruit with ripeness." In this stanza, the richness of the beginning of autumn seems as though it "will never cease" (Keats 872).

In addition to the pattern of lyrical description throughout the entire poem, is the pattern of contrasts (Moser). One set of contrasts is that of augmentative and terminative meanings. Augmentative meanings refer to the process of growth while terminative meanings refer to completion or endings of any sort. Even in a single l

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Approximate Word count = 983
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English