To Autumn

Question 1

Who was the author of the poem?

Answer 1

John Keats

Question 2

Summarise the poem

Answer 2

• Persona in the poem describes autumn as if it were a person
• Begins by describing the plentiful nature of Autumn as everything ripens for harvest and the warm days seem endless
• They then imagine autumn as a goddess, who can be found where the farm labourers are working - often watching sleepily or drowsily
• Finally, they comment on the sounds of autumn, and how the season draws to a close and the swallows gather to leave for a warmer climate and are replaced in the winter by the robin

Question 3

What are the themes present in the poem?

Answer 3

Nature
Natural world
Abundance
Passing of time
Death
Grief
Loss
Stages of life

Question 4

Describe the form of to autumn and its effect on the poem

Answer 4

• Ode: it is dedicated to autumn
• Written in iambic pentameter, but its rhyme scheme changes slightly
• First four lines of each stanza always have an ABAB rhyme pattern
  → this varies as we go along the poem
• Keat mainly wrote odes with 10 lines, but this one has 11

Question 5

What can we say about the extra line he added to this ode?

Answer 5

• reinforces the plentiful and bountiful nature of autumn
  → could also be reflective of the excessive amount of death he has had in his life

Question 6

Describe the structure of to autumn and its impact

Answer 6

• In each stanza, K introduces an aspect of autumn before expanding on it in the next 10 lines
• Poems structure could be showing the passage of time:
  → stanza 1: misty morning + ripeness of autumn
  → stanza 2: sleepy afternoon + season begins to wane and draw to a close
  → stanza 3: evening + dying of the season before winter approaches

Question 7

Describe the language of to autumn and its impact

Answer 7

• Language of excess: autumn can produce a plentiful harvest, but sometimes it is too much - perhaps hinting that it is on the brink of death/decay
• Personification: autumn is a humble goddess who has worked hard and its beginning to relax as the season passes
• Sibilance has sounds that are reflective of nature
• First stanza: semantic field of fertility
• Third stanza: semantic field of song to reinforce the songs of autumn
  → attempting to encapsulate the memories of autumn

Question 8

What is the impact of the sensory imagery?

Answer 8

• used to create the song of autumn
• quite melancholy, and the swallows at the end symbolise death but the promise of new life, as migration is temporary
  → end is quite elegiac
• first stanza focuses on touch, the second on sight and the third on sound, which reinforces the abundance of autumn

Question 9

What is the context behind the author?

Answer 9

• Romantic poet
• Died of TB age 25
• Both parents died in his youth, and his brother succumbed to TB the year before. He was nursed by John
• Apprenticed to a surgeon at 16 but abandoned medicine for poetry in 1816

Question 10

Complete the quote
‘Season of mist…

Answer 10

…and fruitfulness!

Question 11

Analyse the quote
‘Season of mist and fruitfulness!’

Answer 11

→ mature and calming description - onomatopoeia + alliteration
→ gentle and positive portrayal
→ sounds reflective of the nature around him
→ exclamatory phrasing: speaker is excited
→ alliterative ‘m’ sounds: seasons of calm and harmony

Question 12

Complete the quote
‘To swell the gourd…

Answer 12

…and plump the hazel shells’

Question 13

Analyse the quote
‘To swell the gourd and plump the hazel shells’

Answer 13

→ use of dramatic words create a sense of ripeness and abundance to autumn, which is further reinforced through the semantic field of fertility
→ autumn is a fruitful and lush time

Question 14

Complete the quote
‘Until they think…

Answer 14

…warm days will never cease’

Question 15

Analyse the quote
‘Until they think warm days will never cease’

Answer 15

→ hint of sadness that it will go
→ could link to the excessive amount of death in his life
→ first indication that winter is coming
→ links to passage of time

Question 16

Complete the quote
‘O’erbrimmed their…

Answer 16

…clammy shells’

Question 17

Analyse the quote
‘O’erbrimmed their clammy shells’

Answer 17

→ shift in focus and perhaps time
→ highlights life cycle + that at the end of autumn, winter will arrive, bringing death
→ negative connotations, summer has provided too much
→ language of excess beginning to symbolise the onset of death

Question 18

Complete the quote
‘Wachest the last…

Answer 18

…oozings hours by hours’

Question 19

Analyse the quote
‘Wachest the last oozings hours by hours’

Answer 19

→ tone becomes darker, symbolising the end of their life
→ he doesn’t want it to go
→ implies that autumn behaves as if it has all the time in the world, even though time is passing by
→ could refer to his death being a slow death, and autumn purposefully elongating it rather than just letting winter arrive quickly } making him suffer for a long time

Question 20

Complete the quote
‘Thou hast…

Answer 20

…thy music too’

Question 21

Analyse the quote
‘Thou hast thy music too’

Answer 21

→ reinforcing autumn
→ low blow to spring
→ autumn has multiple personas, showing the abundance that the season brings
→ personification of autumn as hardworking but also someone who knows when to take a break
→ autumn ages throughout the poem the same way a human does

Question 22

Complete the quote
‘Full grown lambs…

Answer 22

…loud bleat’

Question 23

Analyse the quote
‘Full grown lambs loud bleat’

Answer 23

→ reflects the passage of time: lambs are born in spring and they are fully grown now
→ ‘bleat’: despite the onset of winter, the natural world continues to be rich with sounds

Question 24

Complete the quote
‘Gathering…

Answer 24

…swallows twitter’

Question 25

Analyse the quote
‘Gathering swallows twitter’

Answer 25

→ migration
→ life is leaving
→ many christians see swallows as a sign of sacrifice, rebirth and new beginnings, which could be symbolic of autumn + how it gives
→ swallows leaving is representative of autumn leaving