Ode to Autumn John Keats

What is Romantisism? Use creative imagination • Focus on nature • Importance of myth and symbolism • Focus on feelings and intuition • Freedom and spontaneity • Simple language • Personal experience, democracy and liberty • Fascination with past

Odes Lengthy Serious in subject matter Elevated in its word choice and style Elaborate structure in stanzas The Horatian ode - “To Autumn” uniform stanzas same metrical pattern more personal, meditative, & restrained

Guiding Questions Read the first stanza and circle two words which you think best describe autumn. Point out lines in the first stanza which draw pictures in your mind Name at least three things that autumn and the sun are conspiring to do in stanza 1. How may autumn confuse the bees? Cite three instances in which the spirit of autumn is personified as a farm girl? What sights are evoked at line 25-26 to picture autumn's beauty? What autumn sounds are mentioned in the last seven lines of final stanza? What does Keats suggest about autumn's beauty and about cyclic pattern of nature? Is this poem mainly descriptive, or does the poet intrude his moods on the poem? What examples of tactile imagery-imagery that appeals to the senses of touch-do you find in "To Autumn"? What is the theme of the ode? (ripeness and harvest; nature's cycles) (20 minutes)

To Autumn 1. SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless   With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,  And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;   To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,   And still more, later flowers for the bees,   Until they think warm days will never cease,    For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? 2 . 　 　Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? 　   Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find 　Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, 　 　   Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; 　 　Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep, 　 　   Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook 　      Spares the next swath and all its twinéd flowers: 　And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep 　 　   Steady thy laden head across a brook; 　   Or by a cyder-press, with patient look, 　 　      Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? 3. Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?   Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,— While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,    And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue; Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn   Among the river sallows, borne aloft     Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;          Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft   The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;     And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Stanza 1 Autumn: a season of harvest; fruiting stage Metaphors of the autumn: “close bosom-friend of the maturing sun,” “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” “him”  the sun “bless with fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run ”  bless the vines that run round the thatch-eves with fruit “load and bless”: Autumn and the sun not only load but also bless the vines with fruit. The effects of using the word bless may include autumn’s benediction over the ripening of the fruits and its power to enrich the fertility of nature. “To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees” To bend the moss’d cottage-trees with apples  The apples become so numerous that their weight bends the trees. “to set budding more ”: -ing form suggests activity that is continuing “And still more ” suggests the mushrooming of flowers Use of flashback : line 9 - line 11(cause and effect are reversed)

Stanza 2 Autumn: lax or resting; the stage of slowing down; personification of autumn as a reaper or a harvester “sound asleep,” “Drows'd ”  Autumn is listless and even falls asleep “Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours ”: The end of the cycle is near. The squeezing of the apple cider is nearly finished (“the last oozings”)

Stanza 3 Autumn: Description of the beauty of autumn. Keats blends living and dying, the pleasant and the unpleasant, because they are crucial elements of the mixed nature. Mention of “spring”: 1. representing process; the proceeding flow of time (like the “summer” in stanza 1) 2. Spring is a time of rebirth of life which contrasts with the seemingly dying autumn of stanza 3. “the soft-dying day”: Its dying also creates beauty (as the following lines present) “While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue ”: the setting sun casts a “bloom” of “rosy hue” over the stubble left after the harvest “And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn”: sheep will be slaughtered in autumn (Note: why is Keats using the term “lambs” rather than “sheep”?) “And gathering swallows twitter in the skies”: The swallows are gathering for their winter migration  suggesting that the autumn will cease

Images:Stanza 1 The whole stanza is a single phrase that does not form a complete sentence. It addresses Autumn by name, just as a prayer would begin by invoking or naming the god it addresses, but uses a description rather than Autumn's proper name.( e.g. “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,”&“Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun”) Personification

Images:Stanza 1 Besides maturing sun, other words and phrases that suggest maturity  And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;  To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

Images:Stanza 1 A repetitive listing of ripening indicates that Keats might designed it on purpose, in order to show the conspiracy between autumn and sun. Autumn and the sun not only load but also bless the vines with fruit.  the effects of using the word bless at the end of the stanza, Autumn and the sun make so many flowers bud late in the season that the bees have become confused (Until they think warm days will never cease, For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.)  suggests unawareness

Images:Stanza 2 “Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?”Keats is stressing that in fact everyone has seen Autumn. “harvested grain, a partially harvested field, apples being pressed to make cider”  All the stanza's images take sights common in the countryside during autumn “sitting careless; sound asleep; Drows'd; keep / Steady; with patient look” the images seem to picture Autumn at rest

Images:Stanza 3 “the soft-dying day,”“mourn,” “sinking,” “dies,” words and phrases that suggest death or dying Indicates that “Autumn is leaving”

Images:Stanza 3 Autumn's music: “Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn” “And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;” “Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft” “The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft” “And gathering swallows twitter in the skies”

Images:Stanza 3 connotations of death “And full-grown lambs bleat from hilly bourne;” “Hedge-crickets sing;” “And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.” connotations of death “Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft The red-breat whistles from a garden-croft; And gathering swallows twitter in the skies."

1st stanza—describing the autumn as a fruitful season Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; To bend with apples the mossed cottage trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease, For Summer has o’er-brimmed their clammy cells.

2nd stanza—Comparing autumn to “someone” (personification) Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep, Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook Spares the next swath and all its twinéd flowers: And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep Steady thy laden head across a brook; Or by a cyder-press, with patient look, Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

3rd stanza—Autumn is a symbol of maturity of beings Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,— While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue; Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn Among the river sallows, borne aloft Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Reflective Questions How does each speaker talk to/about the subject (Art/Nature)? What are their attitudes? Is the speaker in “To Autumn” more respectful and in awe than “Grecian Urn”? How?