To Autumn

Question 1

Context

Answer 1

Often uses lavish imagery
Romantic poet
Nursed his brother from TB, knowing he himself would get it too.
Accepting his death sentence
Dies at 25
Is an ode

Question 2

Structure

Answer 2

An ode will usually have ten lines per stanza, yet keats chooses to add one more which imply a sinister foreboding tone.
Also alludes to the excessive nature of autumn

Question 3

Language and Imagery

Answer 3

Lavish

Question 4

Tone

Answer 4

Nostalgia

Question 5

Season of mists and mellow…

Answer 5

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

addressing autumn directly, in a rhetorical technique known as apostrophe
long vowels in ‘season’, ‘mellow’, ‘fruit…’ — words that can’t be said quickly. The sibilant ’s’s and consonant clusters, as in ‘mists’ and ‘fruitfulness’ slow the pace, and the ‘l’s in ‘mellow’ and ‘fruitful …’ are soft and soothing.

Question 6

Close bosom-frie…

Answer 6

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

sun is personified
Signifies a close friendship between sun and season.
Connotes joy.

Question 7

round the th,…

Answer 7

round the thatch-eaves run;

Presents a pastoral setting
thought to originate in Ancient Greece, and the ode is a Greek form, so it is appropriate for this ode to include pastoral themes

Question 8

Who hath not seen the…

Answer 8

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

personification of Autumn
question mark signals to fear and unresolved tensions. Keats is likely feeling both while suffering from TB.

Question 9

For Summer has o’er-brimm…

Answer 9

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

epithet as honey has brimmed the cells not summer.
‘Clammy’ sounds unpleasant, as if the poet will lead on to negatives
subverts the sweetness

Question 10

Where are the songs o…

Answer 10

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?

Keats is almost feverish with doubt
opens in an interrogative mood
questioning where spring has gone or maybe when will it return. Spring links to life and renewal

Question 10

Thy hair soft-lifted by the…

Answer 10

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;

suggests Autumn may be a woman. One can picture long hair dancing in the breeze, an erotic idea, hair being a sexual trigger linking to his romantic side.
alliteration of ‘winnowing wind’, with its repeated ‘w’s suggests the sound of the wind.

Question 11

And gathering swall…

Answer 11

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

swallows are preparing for migration south
ominous overtones in the way that darkness gathers
skies associated with the cosmos and heaven and even death.