To Autumn

Question 1

man and the natural world

Answer 1

stanza 1: images of interaction between humans + plants around them
stanza 2: production of agriculture - natural process controlled by people
stanza 3: outside human perspective (gnats and swallows not used or controlled by humans), wildness of nature
- portrays nature as if it were a short-sighted person (of sucking only on the present, without care for future)
- conscious ignorance towards human being + their activites

Question 2

time/transformation

Answer 2

• no mention of winter: Keats doesn’t want to dwell on cold days to come (aware he’s slowly dying)
• encourages reader to focus on present (like personified Autumn)
• subtle time progress: s1= natural world at its peak (sunlight + ripeness), semantic field of bounty (juxtaposes finite points, maturing sun), s3= sun is setting (“soft-dying day”), juxtaposition
• primary tension between forward motion of the day/seasons + the speakers desire to freeze time

Question 3

morality

Answer 3

• “Autumn”: symbol for old age in literature (time before death/winter), Keats aware that his time is coming to an end
• subtle references to death, bees thinking summer will last
• lexis: signified end of a process
• mentions of finite points (maturing sun)
• rhetorical quuestion s3: accusatory/afraid of the cycle ending
• “Poppies”: reminder of cycle ending

Question 4

awe/ amazement

Answer 4

• convincing autumn of its worth (reminder of its wonders: bounty of harvest, dropping of seeds, symphony of sights)
• “Autumn”: blissfully unaware + examines her work without concern or urgency, doesn’t want or need praise (adds to Keats’ awe)

Question 5

form

Answer 5

• ode (addresses person/object that can’t talk back)
• 3 stanzas chronological order that reflects cycle + natural order: s1= vegetation/fruits (pre-harvest) s2= humans + harvest s3= animals (post-harvest)
• 11 lines per stanza: symmetry + balance (romantics say nature is perfectly balanced, golden ratio, + intervention of man causes problems). other poems use 10 lines (extra shows bounty)
• iambic pentameter
  rhyme scheme- same in s2 +s3 (difference shows a change of view)

Question 6

imagery/ AO1

Answer 6

• Apostrophe
• idea that Autumn comes from European Art
• fricative ‘f’ contrasts satisfactory ‘m’ through semantic field of bounty
• contrast autumn with spring

Question 7

context- date

Answer 7

• written 19th September 1819
• last of the great odes + last malt poem before his death 1821), shows Keats’ decline

Question 8

context - inspiration

Answer 8

• letter to friend John Hamilton Reynolds: showed Keats’ admiration for autumn as a season highlighted
• wrote it on a sunday walk - links to romanticism

Question 9

context - social

Answer 9

• start of 1819: Keats left poorly paid job as dresser + made poor choice to try and create a career in poetry (not able to rely on brother George for money - he was so in debt)
• poetry so far wasn’t proving lucrative: ditched well used techniques (narration) in last attempt at his career

Question 10

poetry theme links

Answer 10

• nature + romanticism: romantic poems usually commented on glorification of nature + organic in response to pragmatism seen in Industrial Revolution. imagery mirrors scenes he saw on his walk
• personification of poem: translates Keats romantic conscience, portraying omnipotent characteristic that nature holds + cyclical structure shows natures power to be immortal
  -death + decay: interpreted as 2 different consequences of death in his own life (death of poetic career + death surrounding his family)
• sorrow tone but romantic techniques highlight Keat’s knowledge that death is apart of life’s sucks