ode to autumn analysisi pdf

Ode To Autumn Poem

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,
   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,
       For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

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;
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;
   Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
       Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

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,
   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;
   Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
   The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
       And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Introduction

            “Ode To Autumn” is a very remarkable poem, which has been composed by the great romantic poet John Keats. It was composed in September 1819 and published in the next year 1820. In this poem, Keats explored his critical thinking about the Autumn season. Nature highly influenced Keats, therefore, he always tried to find a chance season that usually created a type of sensation in the hearts of poets. John Keats in this ode exaggerates the beauty of the Autumn season. This poem is full of passion and excitement. He is very much delighted after seeing nature around him in the autumn. ‘Walter Everette’ called him

“The only perfect poem that Keats ever wrote.”

About The Poet

          The composer of this poem ‘John Keats’ was belonged to the second generation of romantic poets like Lord Byron and P. B. Shelly. He was counted as a major poet after Wordsworth. He wrote for a very short duration and became very famous. He died at the age of 30 because of tuberculosis. Some of his majorly known poems are – Ode to a Nightingale, Ode to Autumn, Ode to Psyche, Ode on Indolence, and Ode on Melancholy. The themes of Keats’s works were love, beauty, joy, nature, music, and the mortality of human life.

Rhyme Scheme and Structure of Ode to Autumn

            The poem has three stanzas, each of eleven lines. The Rhyme scheme of the first stanza is ABABCDEDCCE and the last two stanzas’ rhyme schemes are – ABABCDECDDE. The meter of the poem is iambic pentameter, in which each line has five iambs consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

The theme of The poem

            There are three main themes that John Keats follows in Ode to Autumn

• Passage of Time
• Power of Nature
• Solace of Beauty

Explanation Of Ode to Autumn Poem

            In the first stanza, the poet has described the beauty of Autumn. According to the poet, Autumn is a season of fulfillment. It is a season of ripening the fruits. Their trees are bent with the weight of fruits. Poet is looking at apple trees in the garden near the cottage which is covered with moss. The trees have ripened fruits. It is a season for blooming colorful flowers. The bees are very happy in this season. The bees taste the sweet juice of the flowers. Their honeycombs are filled with enough honey.

            It seems to the poet that the sun is helping autumn in ripening the fruits. Keats is a lover of nature. He expresses his keen observation of nature in the poem effectively. The vine creepers are also very happy with the loaded bunches of grapes. Thus the poet expresses the importance of the autumn season beautifully. There is everywhere feelings of fulfillment and maturity in the autumn season. Green trees with ripe fruits are look everywhere.

            In the second stanza, the poet represents the autumn season in many forms on the fields. He personifies autumn as a harvester, a reaper, a gleaner, and in lastly a cider presser. At first, the poet personifies Autumn as a harvester who is sitting near her crop after it he represents Autumn as a crop reaper who is sleeping near his half-reaped crop and after it, the poet represents autumn as a gleaner who is going to home fruits which she has gathered in a day.

            She is an expert in crossing the river without losing her balance. At last, their poet describes autumn as a cider–press. Thus the poet describes autumn in various forms of a person. Thus Keats is successful to give autumn a great personality. The works of Autumn in every form are very important.

            In the third stanza, the poet describes the various sounds of autumn. The poet says that autumn does not have sweet music like the spring season. Therefore the poet is sad. He does not hear the sweet song in the Autumn season. But after some time he becomes normal as every season has its own beauty and music. According to the poet, Autumn has its own beauty and music. The poet hears the sound of Autumn in the evening at the time of the sun setting. The clouds seem to the poet like the bars of a stove and the sad sound of insects makes their own music. Their insects are flying near the riverside among the shrub. The poet also hears the bleating sound of lambs near the hills. The chirping of the swallows also can be heard in the autumn season. Now Keats is happy after hearing the different sounds of different birds and insects in the autumn. Thus the poet is happy to see the beauty of the glorious music of the autumn season.

Conclusion

            Thus, in this poem, John Keats exaggerates the beauty of the Autumn season. He shows off his readers the power of his imagination Autumn has often been described in poetry as a Symbol of melancholy hopelessness and despair but in the view of John Keats, this season brings joy.

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