1. On the Grasshopper and the Cricket By John Keats
The poetry of earth is never dead: When all the birds are faint with the hot sun, And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead; That is the Grasshopper's-he takes the lead In summer luxury,-he has never done With his delights; for when tired out with fun He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed. The poetry of earth is ceasing never: On a lone winter evening, when the frost Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills The Cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever, And seems to one in drowsiness half lost, The Grasshopper's among some grassy hills.

2. Background English romantic poet in the early 1800’s
Keats wanted the world to see the flaw of the scientific rationalisation of nature
Struck by tuberculosis like his mother and died at an early age of 25
During his time his poems were not appreciated by the critics
The poem is a clear allusion to the tale of the ant and the grasshopper

3. Stanza 1
The poetry of earth is never dead: When all the birds are faint with the hot sun, And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;
Stanza 1 establishes the setting for the poem

4. Stanza 2
That is the Grasshopper's-he takes the lead In summer luxury,-he has never done With his delights; for when tired out with fun He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.
Part 2 introduces the grasshopper and establishes an easy going mood

5. Stanza 3
The poetry of earth is ceasing never: On a lone winter evening, when the frost Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills The Cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever, And seems to one in drowsiness half lost, The Grasshopper's among some grassy hills.
Nature is shown in its full force

6. Morale
Through the grasshopper and the cricket John Keats shows the repercussions of ones actions
It also teaches that nature is a force which one must take into account
Throughout the poem nature can be seen to be compared to God and its actions should not be rationalised

7. Themes The eternity of nature The poetry and beauty of nature
Religion and belief into a higher power
Reward and punishment
The flow of life

8. Essay Questions Comment on the way the author empowers nature
Explain how the author appeals to the senses to convey his beliefs
Explain how the author contrasts the lives of the cricket and grasshopper