RomanticismJohn KeatsOde to Autumn

By : Douha Almansour,Maram Aljehani.

Romanticism 18th and 19th centuries

The Romantic Age: Romanticism was a movement in literature, art, and music that emphasized feeling over thought. In many ways it was a reaction to The Enlightenment, or at least it was a reaction against the philosophic notion that human actions were guided by the unchangeable forces of economics, sociology, and physics.

Romanticism has very little to do with things popularly thought of as "romantic," although love may occasionally be the subject of Romantic art. Rather, it is an international artistic and philosophical movement that redefined the fundamental ways in which people in Western cultures thought about themselves and about their world.

Romantic Literature

Romantic literature is dominated by poetry. The triumvirate of Keats, Shelley, and Byron are still well-known. The poetry of Keats is sentimental, that of Shelley intense, and Byron displays a mastery of sardonic wit.

*Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in late 18th century Western Europe. It stressed strong emotion, imagination, freedom within or even from classical notions of form in art, and overturning of previous social conventions, particularly the position of the aristocracy.

*The Romantics asserted the importance of the individual, the unique, even the eccentric. Also Romanticism is often understood as a set of new cultural and aesthetic values. It might be taken to include the rise of

individualism .

John Keats (1795 – 1821)

John Keats ( born in 1795 - dead in 1821) was an English Romantic poet. He was one of the main figures of the second generation of romantic poets along with Lord Byron and P. B. Shelley, although his work only having been in publication for four years before his death.

Also John Keats one of England’s greatest poets, he was a key element in the Romantic Movement. Known especially for his love of the country and sensuous descriptions of the beauty of nature, his poetry also resonated with deep philosophic questions.

Although his poems were not generally well-received by critics during his life, his name grew after his death, so that by the end of the 19th century he had become one of the most beloved of all English poets. He had a significant influence on a various range of poets and writers.

The poetry of Keats is characterized by sensual imagery, most notably in the series of odes. Today his poems and letters are some of the most popular and most analyzed in English literature.

Themes: Many of John Keats poems contain the themes of the effects of time, change,

life vs. death, the mortality of human life, suffering, and beauty .

The theme of "To Autumn" is that time passes and that each portion is appreciated by different individuals and the theme of change is also present in this poem.

Introduction" *To Autumn" is a poem for anyone who has a little trouble letting good things

come to an end. It could be a relationship, a cherished experience, or just something you outgrow. And, of course, it could even be a favorite time of year.

* Before writing this poem, John Keats surely knew that the rational thing to do would have been to write a poem in praise of spring, the season of life and rebirth. But despite their reputation for intense emotions, the British Romantic poets were not sentimentalists. They famously wrote odes in praise of things that most people wouldn't think to praise, like "Dejection" or "Melancholy." They found beauty in the neglected corners of life. In "To Autumn," Keats finds beauty in the lengthening days, chilly weather, and brown fields of fall, the time just before winter squelches the last bit of warmth and everyone retreats to their fires and hot cider.

* Sadly, Keats was to become a living example of things coming to an end too soon. He died at the age of 25, only two years after completing this poem.

Ode to AutumnJohn Keats (1795 – 1821)

Ode to Autumn - John Keats - YouTube.flv

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and blessWith fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves 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 shellsWith 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’erbrimmed their clammy cells.

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 hookSpares the next swath and all its twined flowers;

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keepSteady thy laden head across a brook;Or by a cider-press, with patient look,

Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are theThink not of them, thou hast thy music too, -

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying dayAnd touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mournAmong 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 softThe redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Summary of the First Stanza *Lines 1-2

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

*From the title it's clear that the speaker is talking about autumn. The speaker briefly describes the season and immediately jumps into personification, suggesting that autumn and the sun are old friends.

" *Mists" often accompany chilly weather." *Mellow fruitfulness”." The word "mellow," meaning low-key or subdued, is a good fit

for autumn, with its neutral colors and cool, yet not cold, weather. And it's also the season when many fruits and other crops are harvested, making autumn fruit-full.

*Autumn is a close friend of the sun, who is "maturing" as the year goes on. "Maturing" could be a polite way of saying "getting old." The sun is no longer in its prime.

*Lines 3-4

Conspiring with him how to load and blessWith fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

*now the sun and autumn are "conspiring .“,*They are planning how to make fruit grow on the vines that curl

around the roofs ("eves") of thatched cottages.The image highlights the weight of the fruit as it "loads" down the vines.

Thatched cottages suggest a pastoral setting, characterized by shepherds, sheep, maidens, and agriculture. The "pastoral" as a literary genre was thought to originate in Ancient Greece, and the ode is a Greek form, so it is appropriate for this ode to include pastoral themes. Keats's other Great Odes, especially "Ode on a Grecian Urn," include similar imagery.

*Lines 5-6

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees ,And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core ;

*The apples "bend" down the branches of mossy trees with their weight. The trees belong to the simple cottages of country folk.

*The ripeness penetrates deep to the very center of the fruit.

*Lines 7-8

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shellsWith a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

*In line 6, the ripeness converged on the center of the fruit. Now, the ripeness expands like a balloon to "fill up" nuts and gourds. The opposition of these motions helps us visualize the process.

"*Gourds" include things like squash, zucchini, and, especially, pumpkins.

"*Hazel" is a plant that produces the nuts that add delicious flavor to coffee or gelato. The nut is the "sweet kernel" that

we eat .

*Lines 9-11

And still more, later flowers for the bees ,Until they think warm days will never cease ,

*The "budding" that the speaker describes is in the future .*Autumn isn't just a time of things dying off, turning brown, and

falling to the ground. It also sets the stage for the return of growth in the spring. From nature's perspective, fruit is the mechanism for planting new seeds.

*The speaker goes on a little imaginative trip into the next spring and summer, where the bees take advantage of the flowers that began as a small seed in autumn. The bees think the summer will never end, and that the flowers will always be in bloom.

*The bees are like prisoners inside of "clammy cells," the cells being the moist insides of the flowers in which they seek nectar.

Summary of the Second Stanza

*Line 12

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store ?

*Keats returns to the personification of spring. He asks a rhetorical question: Who hasn't seen autumn hanging out by his or her (we're not sure yet)

"store" of fruits, nuts, and other ripe things ?*The word "store" suggests the abundance of crops.

*Lines 13-14

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may findThee sitting careless on a granary floor ,

*He is going to tell us how to find autumn now.*All anyone has to do is travel through the countryside

hitting up every "granary" – buildings where large amounts of harvested grain are kept cool and dry – until

you find autumn sitting on the floor of one of them .*Now that the grain has been harvested, autumn doesn't

have a care in the world ."*abroad" means "widely" or "through the countryside"

or "across the land," rather than "in a foreign country".

*Line 15

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;

*From this line we will guess that autumn is a woman. Not only because seasons were traditionally personified as female in European art, but also

because this season has soft hair .*Keats never uses "she" or "her" in a direct way in

this poem.*Autumn has nothing to do but hang out. She sits on

the granary, and her hair is lifted by a gentle wind.

*Lines 16-18

Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep ,Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hookSpares the next swath and all its twined flowers:

*He says that if Autumn is not on the threshing floor, she might also be on the furrow of a field that has only partially been harvested. She's taking a nap because she's earned one. "Furrows" are the long, undulating hills

that you see in fields, on top of which crops grow .*The speaker claims that autumn is basically drunk on the smell of the

poppy flowers that she was going to harvest. She lies on the furrow while the "hook," or sickle, that she uses to cut the flowers lies unused. She hasn't gotten to the next "swatch" of flowers, so they're saved... for now.

*The reference to poppies is no accident. Poppies were used to make opium, a drug that was popular in England in the 19th century .

*Of course, the smell of the flowers alone could not make someone intoxicated, except metaphorically.

*Lines 19-20

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keepSteady thy laden head across a brook ;

*The harvesting metaphors continue, as autumn is compared to a "gleaner," someone who picks out the last stalks of grain that were missed

during the threshing process .*Autumn puts her head down to cross over a

brook. Her head is "laden" or heavy – yet another image of weight.

*Lines 21-22

Or by a cider-press, with patient look,Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.

*But, if we still haven't had autumn, after searching all those other places, we might try the "cider-press," where she's totally mesmerized watching the fruit get squeezed into a thick, sugary

juice .*Cider is frequently alcoholic, so this could be another reference

to an intoxicant .*Autumn has nothing to do, nowhere to be. She can "patiently"

watch the thick juice or "ooze" of the apples drop from the press for hours.

*The word "Oozings" captures the concentrated sweetness of the season.

Summary of the Third Stanza

*Lines 23-24

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they ?Think not of them, thou hast thy music too--,

*The final stanza begins with another rhetorical question, which is, "Where are your songs Spring ?

*He reassures autumn, who might be feeling inadequate compared to her more celebrated counterpart, that she has her own music.

*Keats alludes again to the pastoral tradition in poetry, in which shepherds typically "sing" in springtime, often while playing a lyre.

*Lines 25-26

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day ,And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

*The speaker begins to describe the "song" of autumn. It's more of a metaphorical song.

*He describes the patchy clouds, between which patches of sky can be seen, as "barred." These clouds appear to be in "bloom," like flowers, as they light up with the colors of sunset. The use of

"bloom" is a direct challenge, again, to springtime .*The day is "dying" at sunset, but it's not a tragic or violent

death. It's "soft" and gentle.*The reddish colors of the sunlight "touch" the fields gently. The

fields have been harvested, so all that is left as a flat "stubble" of crop.

*Lines 27-29

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn Among the river sallows, borne aloft

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies ;

*The gnats by the riverside "mourn" the dying day. They are "wailing" as if the daylight had been a favorite grandparent or something.

*In fact, they are just doing what gnats do: coming out at evening time. The choir sound is the collective buzzing of their tiny little wings .

*Gnats especially like to hang out in wet areas, near trees, and here we find them near the willow or "sallow" trees down by the river.

Their movement appears to be coordinated with the light. Light gets brighter, gnats go up; light gets dimmer, gnats go down.

*Keats is having all kinds of fun with movement and directions in this poem.

The speaker continues to paint the sunset as a life-or-death struggle for the light.

*The sound of the gnats contributes to the song of autumn.

*Lines 30-33

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn ;Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft ,And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

*The poem concludes with more animal sounds, but those of a more conventional variety than the buzzing of gnats .

*Lambs are bleating near the small stream, or "bourn," that flows down a hill. The speaker calls them "full-grown lambs," which is like saying, "full-grown child“. He seems to want to highlight the in-between stage between the glorious ripeness of youth and plain old adulthood.

*Crickets are "singing" by rubbing their wings together, otherwise known as "chirping ".

*With a soft but high ("treble") voice, the redbreast robin is whistling in an enclosed garden, or "garden-croft".

*The swallows have been taken to the sky at twilight, and they "twitter" joyfully as the sun goes down.

The Analysis of The Five Senses of Imagery

*Visual (Sight).

*Aural, Auditory (Sound).

*Smell, Olfactory.

*Taste, Gustatory.

*Sensation, Tactile (Touch).

•Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and blessWith fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves 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 shellsWith 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’erbrimmed their clammy cells.

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 hookSpares the next swath and all its twined flowers;

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keepSteady thy laden head across a brook;Or by a cider-press, with patient look,

Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.

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 dayAnd touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mournAmong 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 softThe redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Themes

Man and the Natural World

"To Autumn" contains very specific natural landscapes and images. The first stanza offers images of the interaction between humans and the plants that surround them. The second describes the production of agriculture, a natural process that is controlled by people. The third stanza moves outside of the human perspective to include things that are not used or consumed by humans. This third section captures some of the "wildness" and unpredictability of nature.

Time

It is not a coincidence that "To Autumn" mentions autumn and spring, but not winter. Keats doesn't want to dwell on the cold days to come. To appreciate autumn, we need to forget about how each passing day seems a little shorter and chillier. For the most part, the speaker stays focused on the present moment. The natural world is at the peak of sunlight and ripeness in the first stanza, and by the third stanza the sun is setting.

Transformation

Autumn is the time of transformation between the growth of summer and the dormancy of winter. Things are winding down, and once the harvest is complete, there is nothing left to do but wait until the next season. Much of the transformation in the poem occurs between stanzas. For example, in the first stanza fruits and gourds are swelling outward before they will be picked for food. By the second stanza, the harvest is already complete, or mostly complete, and the ripe apples have been turned into rich, delicious cider. The third stanza focuses only on one transformative event, the setting of the sun.

Mortality

Autumn is frequently used as a symbol in literature for old age, the time before death, symbolized by winter. "To Autumn" avoids any super-obvious references to death, but we do get some subtle ones, like the oblivious bees that think the summer will last forever, or the "hook" that spares the poppy flowers from their inevitable end. As the day begins to "die" in the final section, the entire landscape contributes to the song of mourning.

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