To Autumn

Question 1

Form

Answer 1

It is an ode
Iambic pentameter shows the reliability of the cycle of the seasons, and the inevitable passing of time (sad considering context)

Other odes by Keats have 10 lines per stanza, this has 11, emphasising autumn’s plentiness

First four lines have ABAB, but then it changes- how nature changes throughout autumn and the reliability shifts away

Directly addressing autumn emphasises how his awe, he wants nature to hear him

Question 2

Structure

Answer 2

Starts of with a lot of gustatory imagery, describing fruit. Middle bit turns to personification. Final stanza focusses on aural imagery

At the start of each stanza an aspect of autumn is introduced and it is then expanded upon

Shows the passage of time -> morning (dawn of autumn), afternoon (mid-autumn), evening (late autumn)

Second stanza is one very long sentence, emphasising the plentifullness and also the slow drawing out of time

Autumn is described as a farmer, brewer and singer -> abundance

Question 3

Language

Answer 3

Peaceful
Excess and abundance -> almost gluttonous at times - onset of death

Sensory language -> first touch, then sight, then sound. Reflects abundance. The detail emphasises it’s richness

Question 4

season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!

Answer 4

Visual imagery
Can be seen as negative but here is positive

Alliteration is soothing, makes autumn seem gentle and peaceful

Exclamatory phrase highlights awe

Question 5

fill all fruit with ripeness to the core

‘Swell’ ‘plump’

Answer 5

fricatives show plenty
Gustatory imagery

Plosives too
Create image of bursting, to the brim

Symbol for life, how youthful and energetic he was

Question 6

Sweet kernel

And still more

Answer 6

Plentiful

Question 7

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind

Answer 7

Female personification - peaceful
Alliteration gives rhythm and sense of harmony

Directly addresses solidifies awe and wanting nature to hear him

Question 8

fume of poppies

Answer 8

Sense of loss

Question 9

the last oozings hours by hours

Answer 9

Repetition shows time passing - mournful, as if he wants the time to stay, he’s making the most

Question 10

The soft-dying day

Answer 10

Oxymoron

Melancholy

Question 11

Rosy hue

Answer 11

Colour imagery

Young girl

Question 12

Wailful choir

Answer 12

Juxtaposition
Aural imagery
Mourning chorus

Question 13

Treble soft the red Breast whistles from a garden Croft

Answer 13

K

Question 14

Long sentences and enjambement

Answer 14

Longing

Question 15

CONTEXT

Answer 15

he was dying when he wrote it - it was his last autumn - sense of loss

Question 16

Personification

Answer 16

Shows autumn as hard working but also taking breaks and relaxes

This symbolises harvests, but also the more peaceful mood compared to summer
It ages as it goes, returning to the underlying theme of death

Question 17

maturing sun

Answer 17

Introduces ageing theme of death but in a positive connotation

Question 18

Temporal phrases

Answer 18

‘Maturing’
‘Warm days will never cease (reminiscent, sorrowful tone- he remembers a time when he didn’t know his death was imminent)-> soft-dying day’ ; his life as he recognises his imminent death but believes nature will look after him
‘Hours by hours’

Question 19

Small gnats mourn

Light wind lives or dies

Answer 19

Juxtaposition of life and death

Shows how autumn has life and death present, but this simply adds to the plentifullness

Theme of death

Question 20

Gathering swallows

Answer 20

On coming of winter and death because of the migration

Not permanent , symbolises hope for new life , and his belief that nature will look after his soul

Question 21

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

Answer 21

Rhetorical questions

Scornful of spring, believes it to be gaudy

Question 22

Gleaner

Cyber-press

Answer 22

Words associated with human industry show how autumn provides for us

Disruption of natural descriptions with humanity -> humans are disrupting nature?

Question 23

O’erbrimm’d their clammy cells

Answer 23

Negative connotations regarding summer

Autumn suffers because of its gluttony - the gluttony and selfishness of youth?

Question 24

Close bosom-friend

Answer 24

Pleonasm
Familiar imagery, shows how autumn has a place in his ageing heart and how he has come to appreciate it more as an adult than in his gluttonous youth

Question 25

Thy hook

Answer 25

Theme of death and image of the grim reaper (death personified) hints at decay winter brings, but also the end of his life

Question 26

Full grown lambs loud bleat p

Answer 26

Repetition of ‘l’s give sorrowful time

Full-grown alludes to time passing again as they have grown since spring

Cry at the dying nature
Creates a melancholy image of how animals still live on through the desolation of winter

Question 27

‘Stubble-plains’

Answer 27

Autumn has been reaped -> negative of humanity?

Evocative image of death, thematic. With plentiful life comes plentiful death -> profound. Positivity of plenty is now given a negative colouration

Question 28

Red-breast

Answer 28

Symbols incoming on winter -> the fact that it’s natural is ironic

Keats recognises life will go on after his death- it is swan song