To autumn Flashcards
(18 cards)
where did keats write the poem?
while lodging in Winchester the sold Wes saxon capitol if England and it is perhaps the moist anthologised of his poems. Je had come to Winchester in the late summer of 1819 from the isel of White where he had gone to work on his poems but returnedto the city for a reference libary. walks ‘an hour before dinner’ became his evening cutsom
when
after he took one of his evening walks-walking y the ‘river sallows’ and thatched cottages ‘stubble-plains’. It was the Last if a series of six odes that keats produced during 1819 and indeeded the last major peome he wrote before he died b
mood while writing the peom
despiet the autominal inspiration he was in a sombre mood, he has finacial prolems such as his brother george who was in america and needed money and the fact he was apart from Franny Brawne and his failing health. A year after writing the poem he sailed to a warmer cliamte in italy to help his healtha nd a couple months later in feb 1821 he died
“i always somehow associate chatterton with autumn”
letter written to his friend john hamilton reynolds- chatterton was a 18th century poet who was veyr talented but also died young at 17
summary stanza 1
the poem is a richly pictorial description of the season as summer ends and winter encroaches, teh first stanza as a celebration of ripeness. autumn is personified as the guiding sporit the goddess bheind such abndance and creativity. She is depicted at first as all ‘conspiurint’ with the ‘maturing sun’ to produce a rich range of crops.
summary stanza 2
moves to the autumn harvest and trhe season is personified in various tableaux of argigultural work, the fruits id autumn must serve human beings throughout the year.
summary of final stanza
concludes with a sense of loss, as all the produce has been gathered and nature awaits the onset of winter but here keats gives us hope as the robin sings providing a tunful counterpoint to the beautiful but meloncholy ‘wilful choir’
personification
‘blossom friend’ ‘conspirring’ suggest a mysterious magic itamacy a power creating life and walth everywhere
language of fertility
the impression of endless richness is conveyed not only by the profsuoon of concete nouns ‘vines’ ‘apples’ ‘trees’ but also by all the active verbs, ‘run’ ‘load’ ‘b;les’
‘maturing’ ‘ripess’
work together leading to a hint of sadness of acceptabce of this worlds mutability
‘warm days will never cease’
bees may think this but human consciousness knows that it will, keats langaue enacts the process byw hich natuyre gathers to a ripnessa nd reaches a climax in harvest but will inevitabily decline
musical effects
repeated ‘i’ sounds and alliteration in ‘soft-lifted by the winnowing wind’ the readers hear the gentle buzz of insects ‘inwaiful choir the small gants mourn’ also seeing and feeling there movement-multi sensory
tone
the tone of the peom is celebarory, relishingh autumns riches. however is also pensivley reflects on the transitory nature of life. keats knows oly well how fragile his existnece is- a year before he wrote th poem his brother tom dies and keats health is also in a bad way yet the tone of the poem is one of quiet, calm acceptance and dwells not in the poets subjective feelings rather on natures abundance
Autumn symbol
personified as actively involved in seasons tasks (gleaning) the image of autumn as gleaner is active and the reader feels the wright and balance of its burden-enhjjambent allows the reader to move from one line tio abnother in the way a gleaner moves from one task to another
symbolism of stanza 3
the day, like the year ius seen as dying. however the visyal effects is beuatuful, the day is ‘bloomed’ by rosy light. ‘Bloom” unites the associations if sping and dlowers blossom with the bloom of autumn fruits
the cycle of life
the doe obly celebrates the beauty if autumn but also by focussing on it passing contemplates the transitory nature of life. keats does not try to impose a didactic purpose on his readers, there is no use of ‘i’ all created things pass away een the most beautiful-new life will arise out of death and decay. The poem implies the cycle of life interconnects maturity, deatha dn rebirth. describing the animasl as ‘full-gown lambs’
the fecundity if the natural world
the die is full of the feeling of natures generosity- the combination if laborur dlight and natural wealth offer the impression of man happy and at peace with the wordl in which he lives. the imagery stresses bthe atonishing vareity if nature
human consciousness
nature is abundant but unsconscious, man alone can undertsand the significane of this profusion at the same time looking forward to the furture rebirth and renewel-keats likes to fuse pelase and pain and the poet contemplates the transcince if eveyrthing in nature
