To Autumn Flashcards
Form
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
Structure
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
Language
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
season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!
Visual imagery
Can be seen as negative but here is positive
Alliteration is soothing, makes autumn seem gentle and peaceful
Exclamatory phrase highlights awe
fill all fruit with ripeness to the core
‘Swell’ ‘plump’
fricatives show plenty
Gustatory imagery
Plosives too
Create image of bursting, to the brim
Symbol for life, how youthful and energetic he was
Sweet kernel
And still more
Plentiful
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind
Female personification - peaceful
Alliteration gives rhythm and sense of harmony
Directly addresses solidifies awe and wanting nature to hear him
fume of poppies
Sense of loss
the last oozings hours by hours
Repetition shows time passing - mournful, as if he wants the time to stay, he’s making the most
The soft-dying day
Oxymoron
Melancholy
Rosy hue
Colour imagery
Young girl
Wailful choir
Juxtaposition
Aural imagery
Mourning chorus
Treble soft the red Breast whistles from a garden Croft
K
Long sentences and enjambement
Longing
CONTEXT
he was dying when he wrote it - it was his last autumn - sense of loss
Personification
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
maturing sun
Introduces ageing theme of death but in a positive connotation
Temporal phrases
‘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’
Small gnats mourn
Light wind lives or dies
Juxtaposition of life and death
Shows how autumn has life and death present, but this simply adds to the plentifullness
Theme of death
Gathering swallows
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
Where are the songs of spring? Ay, where are they?
Rhetorical questions
Scornful of spring, believes it to be gaudy
Gleaner
Cyber-press
Words associated with human industry show how autumn provides for us
Disruption of natural descriptions with humanity -> humans are disrupting nature?
O’erbrimm’d their clammy cells
Negative connotations regarding summer
Autumn suffers because of its gluttony - the gluttony and selfishness of youth?
Close bosom-friend
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
Thy hook
Theme of death and image of the grim reaper (death personified) hints at decay winter brings, but also the end of his life
Full grown lambs loud bleat p
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
‘Stubble-plains’
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
Red-breast
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
