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    Keats - TO AUTUMN - Themes

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    VINCENZO
    The poem "To Autumn" by John Keats celebrates the beauty of the autumn season while also acknowledging its fleeting nature and the cycle of life. Autumn is depicted as a time of abundant harvests from the land but also as a transitional period between the activity of summer and the coming dormancy of winter. Various animals are said to "elegize" or mournfully sing as they recognize winter's approach, representing the cycle of one season ending as another begins. The poem focuses on our sensory experience of nature's bounty in autumn and contemplates the transitory nature of life through its changing seasons.

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    Keats - TO AUTUMN - Themes

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    VINCENZO
    211 views2 pages
    The poem "To Autumn" by John Keats celebrates the beauty of the autumn season while also acknowledging its fleeting nature and the cycle of life. Autumn is depicted as a time of abundant harvests from the land but also as a transitional period between the activity of summer and the coming dormancy of winter. Various animals are said to "elegize" or mournfully sing as they recognize winter's approach, representing the cycle of one season ending as another begins. The poem focuses on our sensory experience of nature's bounty in autumn and contemplates the transitory nature of life through its changing seasons.

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    Keats_TO AUTUMN_themes

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    The poem "To Autumn" by John Keats celebrates the beauty of the autumn season while also acknowledging its fleeting nature and the cycle of life. Autumn is depicted as a time of abundant harvests from the land but also as a transitional period between the activity of summer and the coming dormancy of winter. Various animals are said to "elegize" or mournfully sing as they recognize winter's approach, representing the cycle of one season ending as another begins. The poem focuses on our sensory experience of nature's bounty in autumn and contemplates the transitory nature of life through its changing seasons.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    211 views2 pages

    Keats - TO AUTUMN - Themes

    Uploaded by

    VINCENZO
    The poem "To Autumn" by John Keats celebrates the beauty of the autumn season while also acknowledging its fleeting nature and the cycle of life. Autumn is depicted as a time of abundant harvests from the land but also as a transitional period between the activity of summer and the coming dormancy of winter. Various animals are said to "elegize" or mournfully sing as they recognize winter's approach, representing the cycle of one season ending as another begins. The poem focuses on our sensory experience of nature's bounty in autumn and contemplates the transitory nature of life through its changing seasons.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 2

    “To Autumn”

    Themes:
    Beauty and Death
    As its title would suggest, “To Autumn” celebrates the bountiful ​beauty of the fall​. In
    the poem, autumn is a season characterized by a rich abundance of life. The
    culmination of weeks of summer warmth and sunshine, autumn sees trees
    overloaded with fruit, beehives dripping with honey, and thick vines trailing up the
    sides of farmhouses.
    The speaker envisions autumn as a transitional season that straddles the line
    between abundance and decay.
    The poem ultimately presents ​death as a sort peaceful rest​ at the end of frenzied
    activity. To this end, the speaker depicts the day's transition into night (and the
    broader seasonal transition into winter) as a process similar to falling asleep.
    Meanwhile, ​a chorus of animals​ ​elegizes​ the end of autumn​. Knowing death is on
    the horizon, the speaker interprets the gnats’ hum as “wailful” and mournful. The
    speaker also recognizes beauty in the singing crickets and the robin who whistles
    “with treble soft.” Finally, the swallows gather and sing against the void of the
    darkening sky, which will soon pummel the land with harsh weather. All this music,
    which might appear any time of year, takes on a special beauty in the gathering
    shadow of death.

    The cycle of life

    The ode not only celebrates the beauty of autumn but also, by focusing on its
    passing, also contemplates ​the transitory nature of life​.
    Keats does not attempt to impose any didactic purpose on his readers. The focus is
    on the senses and on nature’s fecundity. There is no explicit thought or philosophy
    in the poem and the voice we hear never uses the word ‘I’. Keats’ imagery implies
    what readers all know: that life is cyclical and new life will arise out of death and
    decay.
    The poem implies the cycle of life and the interconnectedness of maturity, death
    and rebirth as one season gives way to another. One image that conveys this is by
    describing the animals bleating as ‘full-grown lambs’.
    The fecundity of the natural world

    The ​Ode to Autumn​ is full of the feeling of ​nature’s generosity​. Man is not the
    dominant force in the scenes depicted. The imagery stresses the astonishing
    variety of nature: the profusion of crops, the flowers, the clouds, the lambs, the
    whistling robin, even the cloud of gnats.
    Human consciousness
    Nature is abundant but unconscious: man alone can understand the significance of
    all this profusion; ​only man can lament the passing of the year​ at the same time as
    looking forward to the future rebirth and renewal.

    Symbols:
    Time
    Keats frequently alludes to the passing of time through the characters and images that
    appear in the poem.
    Nature
    Throughout the poem, Keats uses figures from the natural world to ground the tensions
    between life and death.
    Music
    Keats uses the metaphor of music to distinguish between the character of the seasons.
    Autumn's music, he realizes, may not have the same tune as spring's, but it is lovely
    nonetheless. Their songs are too different for a proper comparison. Instead, he recognizes
    that he must take each on their own terms and accept this difference with grace, if not joy.

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