To Autumn Flashcards
title
the title suggests that this poem is going to be an ode which is a lyric poem that is meant to be sung in praise of a specific thing – ‘autumn’
Form Meter and Rhyme
Follows basic structure of an ode: strophe, antistrophe and epode: problem, another perspective, conclusion. Similarly, stanza 1 is about vivid abundance, stanza 2 is about harvest a form of death, and stanza 3 combines the life of stanza 1 with the death of stanza 2 into the animals who are lively but await the harsh winter coming.
stanza 1 - 1
- In stanza 1, Keats characterizes autumn as the “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.”
- ‘mists’ has connotations of creating a soft, peaceful silence by hanging over the fields making autumn more ‘mellow’. On the other hand, ‘‘mists’ has connotations of something that conceals death. This is shown as the season is described as having an abundant ‘fruitfulness’ implying that the harvest has reached its peak; the next, unspoken step is decay.
- Keats adds “the maturing sun” to the list of characters, implying that humans will be absent from the poem. This shifts the poem’s focus to natural processes such as the friendship between autumn and the sun.
- The two are “Close bosom-friends.” The words “Close” and “bosom” have connotations of comfort and warmth, and the hyphen linking “bosom” and “friend” emphasises the inseparable nature of this friendship. The word “maturing” also emphasizes that the sun brings life by maturing the fruits while simultaneously bringing them closer to death.
- the poem’s punctuation emphasizes the stillness of the scene by fixing these words in place. The ‘fruit with ripeness to the core’ is divided from the other images with a semi-colon end-stop and the swollen gourd is set apart from the hazel shells by a comma. This division gives the reader the impression that time stands still.
stanza 1 - 2
- However, the verbs in these phrases inject dynamic energy into that stillness. The apple trees “bend,” the fruits “fill,” the gourds “swell,” and the hazelnuts “plump.” Though their vivid colour and detail may momentarily freeze them in place, the fruit of autumn actively changes before the speaker’s eyes. The liquid sounds indicate that they are squirming with life.
- The frequent /l/ sounds in “apples” “fill all,” “swell,” “plump,” “hazel,” “shells,” and “kernel” contribute to the sense of overabundance, as if the stanza is filled to the brim with these liquid sounds. This overabundance hints at inevitable death. Having reached their liveliest point, these fruits can only grow smaller, weaker, and uglier, until they disappear.
- ‘o’er-brimm’d’ implies that autumn is a time of abundance as shown in the poems 11-line stanza structure as the additional line in each stanza is overflowing because odes typically have 10 lines per stanza. This highlights that autumn overflows with life emphasising how it’s the peak of nature.
stanza 2 - 1
- Stanza 2 begins with a rhetorical question that emphasizes autumn’s familiarity and universality: “Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?”
- Use of the second-person pronouns ‘thee’, ‘thy’ address autumn more intimately like a friend as if the speaker were trying to enter the “bosom” friendship of autumn and the sun.
- The speaker says that “Whoever seeks abroad,” is likely to find autumn in a number of places. This general pronoun “whoever” reiterates the universality of the experience of autumn, while the reference to roaming “abroad” depicts autumn as an appropriate time to be outside and explore nature. This hypothetical traveller “may find” autumn “on a granary floor”. This implies that such a discovery requires careful observation and regardless of whether anyone notices, autumn will continue, the seasons will keep on rolling.
- This hypothetical autumnal wanderer might notice autumn’s “hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind” which implies a deathly stillness like the image a corpse whose body is stirred only by the wind.
- In the word ‘winnowing’, the ‘n’ and two ‘w’ sounds give it a soft roundness that matches the light touch of the wind.
- it implies autumn’s violence—particularly, the violence of the harvest. Winnowing refers to the separating of wheat from chaff in a piece of grain, a process that requires machinery, cutting, and forced separation. Winnowing, then, wears a disguise, much like autumn. It sounds pleasant enough. As in the case of the “soft lifted” hair, it produces moments of tender beauty.
stanza 2 - 2
Autumn is found to be ‘half …. asleep’ further sinking it into a deeper stillness and the intense life imagery of the first stanza is contrasted to show Autumn is in a stage of transition – perhaps ready to enter a state of hibernation —the transition from the colour-burst and fruitfulness of autumn to the death of winter.
‘Fume of poppies’ - opium was a drug abused by Romantic poets and its drowse-inducing fumes are deeply pleasurable, but they also inevitably end in destruction (self)
Ends with imagery of the ‘last oozings’ of the cyder-press which shows how in Stanza 1, containers filled up and ‘o’er-brimm’d’ and in Stanza 2, they begin to release suggesting the great heavy slow unstoppable conspiracy of the season.
The powerful gentle assonantal noun ‘ oozing’ - elongated vowel sounds in the poem to create a sense of the long lengthening relaxed moored of the season. This highlights the abundance of tactility - so much in this stanza that refers to the gentleness of touch - sensual and vivid.
stanza 3 - 1
The speaker then encourages Autumn to have confidence and reassures that it also has ‘music too’. This personification as a musician shows Autumn to be beautiful and bring happiness.
The ‘soft dying day’ marks the progression of the day through time. In stanza 1, morning “mists” appear, and in stanza 2, autumn lazes around in the dusty drowsiness of a warm afternoon. In stanza 3, the day is “soft dying”—the sun is setting.
This recognises the beauty of the transience of autumn which helps elevate the season through the personification - gives autumn a real status - part of the Romantic ideology which was that humans can learn and be taught so much by nature
stanza 3 - 2
Autumn should be appreciated as much as spring for vitality as the lambs ‘bleat’ and the hedge crickets ‘sing’ and the red-breast ‘whistles’.
This auditory stanza uses a semantic of noise to give a valedictory feel to the stanza - farewell to the season
‘full grown’ lambs shows they are ready for slaughter showing Autumns deathly aspects should also be appreciated.
melancholic atmosphere - this is created through the semantic of death
inevitability of the demise of the season - inexorable – unstoppable
‘gathering swallows’ represents cyclical nature of time as they migrate but will return the following year.
quotes
stanza 1 - 1
- “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.”
- Keats adds “the maturing sun” to the list of characters,
- “Close bosom-friends.”
- the poem’s punctuation emphasizes the stillness of the scene by fixing these words in place.
stanza 1 - 2
- The apple trees “bend,” the fruits “fill,” the gourds “swell,” and the hazelnuts “plump.”
- The frequent /l/ sounds in “apples” “fill all,” “swell,” “plump,” “hazel,” “shells,” and “kernel”
- ‘o’er-brimm’d’ - 11-line stanza vs typical 10 lines per stanza.
stanza 2 - 1
- “Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?” - ‘thee’, ‘thy’
- “Whoever seeks abroad,”
- “hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind” - ‘winnowing’, the ‘n’ and two ‘w’ sounds
stanza 2 - 2
- ‘half … asleep’
- ‘Fume of poppies’
- imagery of the ‘last oozings’ of the cyder-press
stanza 3 - 1
- Autumn ‘hast thy music too’.
- The ‘soft dying day’
stanza 3 - 2
- lambs ‘bleat’ and the hedge crickets ‘sing’ and the red-breast ‘whistles’.
- ‘full grown’ lambs
- ‘gathering swallows’
