Introduction of the Poem:
Keats wrote in September, 1819, from Winchester to Reynolds about the background of the composition of the Ode to Autumn: “How beautiful the season is now — how fine the air — a temperate sharpness about it … I never like stubble - fields so much as now —aye, better than the chilly green of the Spring. Somehow stubble - field looks warm. This struck me so much in my Sunday's walk that I composed upon it." That is his Ode, To Autumn one of the most poetic and perfect composition of Keats.
The ode is characterised by the poet's simple, sensuous and direct love of nature. It presents a beautiful picture of autumn with all the richness and plenty of season. The poem expresses Keats's sense of joy and contentment. It is free from the feeling of pain and despair. The mellow fruitfulness of the season is seen in every object. The poet is delighted to breathe in this atmosphere of peace and plenty. He does not care for the music of spring for Autumn has its own music which delights the poet and gives him utmost joy.
Summary of the Poem:
Stanza 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 hatch - eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core:
To swell the ground, 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.
Explanatory Word-Meanings:
Mellow fruitfulness=ripe fruits. Close bosom-friend = intimate friend. Maturing sun = the autumnal sun matures all fruits. The vines … run = the vines struggling round the eves of thatched cottages. Bend = bend with the load of apples. Moss= algae. Swell = increase in size. Later flowers = late summer flower. They = bees. Thy store= abundant store of autumn. Their clammy cells = the cups of flowers are moist and sticky because of the presence of honey. Careless = at ease.
Paraphrase:
Autumn is a season when trees are laden with fruits and they get ripened to the core. It has been called an intimate friend of the sun which is maturing as the autumnal sun matures all fruits. The sun is conspiring with autumn how to load and bless with fruit the vines straggling round the eves of thatched cottage. The apple trees are so thickly laden with fruits they bend with the load of apples. As these apple trees are grown on unfrequented places, moss has grown over them. In this season, fruits are ripened to the core and gourd, plump, apples and hard shells fruit are swollen with sweet kernel. New buds blossom in this season and late summer flowers are still in bloom and the cups of flowers are moist and sticky on account of the presence of honey and the bees think that the warm days will never come to an end and they will continue sucking honey from these summer flowers.
Stanza 2:
Who hath not seen the oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft - lifted by the winnowing winds
Or on a half - reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers;
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider - press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozins, hours by hours.
Explanatory Word-Meanings:
Half reaped= half cut harvest, other half waiting to be reaped when the reaper will wake up. Furrow =miniature trench made by the plough. Sound asleep = the soundness of sleep is caused by (i) physical exhaustion, and (ii) the soporific odour of poppies which grow intertwined with the corns. Drowsed with = sleep having been induced by. Hook= scythe. Swath = handful or as much as can be taken in the sweep of the scythe. Twined flowers= poppies entangled with the corn. Cider-press = a pressing machine for extracting apple wine or cider. Oozins = falling drop by drop.
Paraphrase:
All must have seen autumn in the midst of its abundant store. As autumn is a season when harvests are cut, there are seen heaps of grain everywhere. In these lines autumn has been personified. It appears first in the person of a harvester. It may be seen sitting carelessly and comfortably on a granary floor with his soft hair lifted by the winnowing wind. It is also presented as a tired reaper who having been tired of his day's work has fallen asleep with sickle in his hand. The fume of poppies has also made him intoxicated and he sleeps soundly. But when he gets up, he will resume his work and reap the remaining tuft by the sweep of the psyche. The poet gives another picture of autumn. It may be seen in the farm of a gleaner a poor woman who having collected the stray heaves of corn lying in the field goes to home in the evening with her modest bundle and while crossing a brooke she chooses her steps cautiously over the stones of the brook and keeps her head steady lest her whole days labour is washed away. The poet portrays another image of autumn. It may be seen in the form of a cider pressure who with a patient look watches the apple juice or wine oozing from the cider press drop by drop.
Stanza 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 a loft
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 gather swallows twitter in the skies.
Explanatory Word-Meanings:
Barred = clouds drawn out in long lines or bars. Bloom =illumine. Soft - dying =in autumn, the twilight is long. The day dies slowly but surely like a consumptive. Stubble= ends of the stem of corn plant. Plains =open field. Wailful choir = the buzzing or murmuring of gnats appeared as if they had been weeping over some dead person. Lives or dies =as the gentle wind blows or ceases to blow. Sallows = a species of willows growing on the banks of rivers, brooks and streams. Borne aloft or sinking= the gnats go up or fall. Full grown = fully developed, in autumn the lambs are full - grown. Loud = the lambs bleat loudly because they are full grown. Hilly bourn = edge of the hill. Hedge- crickets sing =grass - hoppers chirp. Red - breast whistles = the robin or red breast a bird sings in orchard. Gather swallows = the swallows gather in the autumn sky towards sunset.
Paraphrase:
In this stanza the poet praises the music of autumn. In autumn one need not to yearn for the rapturous music of spring. Autumn has its characteristic music too. It is sad and mellowed. The poet draws a picture of the setting sun and its reflection on the stubble - plains. In autumn clouds are drawn out in long lines or bars. They are illuminated by the setting sun and they reflect a rosy light on the plains below. In autumn the sun dies slowly but surely like consumptive. The rosy light of the barred clouds round the setting sun are compared to the hectic flush on the cheeks of a consumptive. It is not a sign of health but of incipient decay. The plains in this stanza are called "stubble - plains" because after the harvesting the stumps of corn are left in the field. The sunset illuminates both the sky above and the earth below. As the wind in the autumn blows or ceases to blow the gnats are seen buzzing mournfully in the midst of willows growing on the banks of rivers, brooks and streams. One may also hear the sound of the bleating of a full grown lamb. The other voices that produce sad music during Autumn are of grasshoppers, red breast and the swallows gathered in the autumnal sky towards sunset and exercise their wings in order to make themselves ready for their winter migration.
Critical Appreciation of Poem:
Background of the Poem:
In his letter to Reynolds , Keats has described the background of the composition of Ode to Autumn: How beautiful the season is now - how fine the air a temperate sharpness about it … I never liked stubble - fields so much as now - aye , better than the chilly green of the spring . Somehow stubble - field looks warm in the same way that some pictures look warm. This struck me so much in my Sundays walk that I composed upon it . The result was one of the most poetic and perfect poems of Keats - Ode to Autumn.
Keats composed this poem at a time when he was passing through a very hard time. His brother Tom was already dead and George intended to go to America. John Keats was the eldest member of the family and the responsibility of raising enough money for George's fair for America was upon him. He himself suffered from ill - health and his failure in love was a cause of much agony for him. Fanny Brawne whom he loved intensely did not return his love. When he could not raise money for his brother, he went to Winchester and passed most of his time in reading Dante and Chatterton. There he used to go for a walk by the river Itchen and it proved soothing to him. He drank deep the serene beauty of Nature which resulted in his Ode to Autumn.
Thought - Content:
Poets generally have showered their praise on spring but few have written poems in praise of autumn, though it has its own beauty and music. It is a season of plenty and bounty. It is a season of rich and ripe fruitfulness. All these things attracted Keats ' attention towards it and he composed such a beautiful poem on the subject as is difficult to be found elsewhere in English literature. The ode reveals Keats's simple, sensuous and direct love of nature. In it the poet portrays a beautiful picture of autumn with all the richness and plenty of season. Here the poet expresses his sense of joy and contentment untainted by pain and despair. The mellow fruitfulness of the season is seen in every object. The poet feels happy in this peaceful atmosphere. He does not care for spring. There are many things in this season that compensate the loss of spring.
In the first stanza the poet lays emphasis on the idea of richness. Autumn is the season itself and has produced a rich variety of fruits which have ripened to the core. And there are flowers for bees to collect nectar from. In the second stanza, autumn has been personified as a human being and is present at different occasions as reaper, winnower, gleaner and wine maker and so on. There sits the rich farmer on his granary floor with his hair lifted by the winnowing wind. There sleeps the reaper who was drowsed by the fumes of poppy as he was reaping his crop. There goes the gleaner trying to keep steady and firm her head as she crosses the brook with a load on his head. There is another picture of autumn. He is present beside a cider press watching the apple wine oozing drop by drop into his pitcher. In the third stanza is pictured the scene of the sunset and its effect on the sky and the stubble - plains.
Besides sights, autumn has its own music. The songs of spring are over. But there is no need to lament the song and beauty of spring. The small gnats make melancholy music in the river sallows. The full grown lambs bleat from their hilly bourn, the red breast sings sitting on the garden fence and swallows gather in the sky making a twittering music.
In this ode the feeling of sadness is kept in the background. He is happy to find that autumn has its own beauty and joy to offer. It symbolises the continuation of life in nature. Nature is never at rest or dormant. It constantly brings new changes in itself.
Felicity of Phrasing:
Every stanza of the poem reveals Keats's love of fine phrases. Keats is very particular about the choice of his words. No superfluous word has been used in the poem. Every word adds to the charm of meaningfulness. Keats has not used compound words and new images in this ode. He uses only simply and effective words. The poet portrays complete pictures with the help of simple words: vines that round the hatch - eves run’, 'mossed cottage – trees’, ‘ripeness to the core’, ‘over brimmed their clammy cells’, ‘Thy hair soft lifted by the winnowing winds' etc. In the following lines, the beauty of the setting sun is presented in a new light:
While barred clouds bloom the soft dying day.
And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue.
The small gnats have a 'wailful choir' because theirs is a very brief life and they have a very little time to sing. The bleating of a full grown lamb has a plaintive tone. In brief, the ode is full of vitality and freshness and breathes the spirit of hope. There is no philosophic contemplation; there is no hankering after the mystery of life, of love beauty or truth. The poem expresses Keats's love of the poetry of earth which is never dead. If spring is known for its beauty and bounty, autumn has its own charm. Sidney Colvin has rightly commented:
“It opens out no such far - reaching avenues of thought and feeling as the Ode to Nightingale and The Grecian Urn, but in execution it is perhaps the completest of them all.”
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