Notes on To Autumn
This poem has a sense of conflict and ambiguity similar to earlier dramatic and questioning odes. It was written when the French Revolution had happened, creating a sense of freedom.. This shows how Keats writes when he's inspired- 'if poetry comes not naturally as leaves to a tree, then it better not come at all'.
Poem has elevated style, like a celebration, but also lamenting the death that Autumn brings. Keats had also just lost his brother to TB, and had caught the illness himself.
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Sinister? As the sun ages, things die. But the ‘maturing sun’ could indicate wisdom.
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;
Energy and beauty– but that life is going to be harvested at its prime as we are about to find out.
He has so much to say.
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.
Nature semantic field
‘bees’ ‘cease’ and ‘cells’ - sibilance. Illustrates continual supply– but too claustrophobic?
The bees are offered abundant pollen. But they are soon to be disappointed in the belief that the ‘warm days will never cease’
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Free, relaxed, detached, aloof
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Autumn personified as a fertile, beautiful woman. As with other female presences in Keats poems– charm co-exists with cruelty.
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers
Implies clemency but it is only a delayed death for the flowers
‘Hook’ has a harsh, clinical sound.
The execution of life abruptly ends the sleepy mood of the first stanza.
Sense of ambivalence with this beautiful yet destructive presence
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.
‘patient’- she is immortal, and can spare time to watch the destruction
‘oozings’- sinister; drawn out destruction
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Calling to Autumn– wild desperation?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
‘clouds bloom’- Juxtaposition of the two words. ‘clouds’ = looming, imminent death. ‘bloom’ = life blossoming, creation.
‘soft dying’- another juxtaposition. ‘ soft’ = calm, beautiful. ‘dying’ = death, the end.
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;
Semantic field of death and closing down
‘Lambs’- Autumn’s children, pathetically innocent; don’t know what’s round the corner.
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
This last line seems positive but...
‘gathering’ - like vultures?
‘swallows’ - swallowed?
‘twitter’ - secretive, hiding something
More notes on To Autumn, looking at form and language
Article by John Sutcliffe, discussing issues surrounding To Autumn
