Close reading- 'To Autumn' by John Keats
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 thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
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.
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-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 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 day,
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;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft,
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
John Keats’ 1819 poem ‘To Autumn’ is a seminal example of Ecopoetry in how it celebrates the capabilities of nature by expressing the need to savour fleeting beauty before its inevitable decline. Through an array of poetic devices and a melodious style, Keats details the grandeur of autumn. The development of my eco-concept ‘Dysanatomification’ connects to this poem’s theme of the transience of nature, as my central environmental issue is ivory poaching and the extinction of elephants. This three-stanza poem embodies an ABAB rhyme scheme and is laced with natural imagery and the personification of autumn as a goddess-like being.
The first stanza builds an atmosphere of beauty and commences with the line, “Seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness”. The alliteration of ‘m’ creates a tuneful yet relaxed sound, mirroring the beauty and pleasantness of the seasonal shift to autumn, and the sense of solace nature brings to an individual. This sensation created by nature can be linked to Transcorporeality in how the substance of the persona is interconnected with the natural landscape. The natural imagery in the line “Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun” captures the partnership between the sun and the season in how it aids the rejuvenation of nature and the ripening of fruits. Keats personifies the sun by attaching the pronoun ‘him’ in “Conspiring with him how to load and bless/With fruit.” This portrays the sun as an authoritative entity that drives the harvest of nature, therefore celebrating the strengths that the natural landscape is capable of. My e-concept is founded on the significance of protecting animals due to their similarities to humans, hence it coincides with this poem’s emphasis of nature as an authoritative being, celebrated for its capabilities. Keats further communicates nature as a living and sentient being through the diction and lexical choices of ‘swell’, ‘plump’ and ‘ripening’. These connote growth and maturity; qualities that nature is constantly recognised for in the humanistic sphere. Interestingly, human nature, in all its egotism, takes nature for granted whereas Keats’ Romantic notions challenge this modern tendency as he celebrates nature as a conscious figure more capable than humans. Moreover, in the line, “Until they think warm days will never cease/For summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells,” the bees are captured as prisoners in the moist insides of flowers in which they retrieve nectar. Keats utilises this natural imagery to convey that nature has reached its point of ripeness by the end of the growing season.
Keats sustains the use of personification in the second stanza by portraying the season as a fertile female goddess, allowing audiences to feel empathy for the season, attributing sentience to the natural landscape. The speaker poses the rhetorical question, “Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?” accompanied by the diction ‘store’, to encourage audiences to comprehend the abundance of crops that spring brings. In the second and third lines, “Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find/Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,” Keats expresses how autumn’s responsibilities are complete as there is harvest on the countryside. The end of the season is representative of nature’s beautiful yet inevitable decline. This links to my e-concept of Dysanatomification as humans must not contribute to the natural life cycle of animals and nonhuman beings, and instead appreciate their beauty without disrupting this order. Indeed, we can mourn change in nature, but we must not propel it for human greed. Additionally, autumn continues to be personified in the line, “Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;” to elevate its beauty and sense of femininity. The alliteration of ‘winnowing wind’ adds to the tranquil cadence of the poem, communicating the gentle process of fruitfulness of the season. The intoxicating relaxation that nature inflicts on humans is seen in the lines, “Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep, /Drowsed with the fume of poppies.” The auditory imagery conveys the speaker becoming drunk on the smell of poppies, manifesting the powerful effects of nature. In 19th century England, poppies were known to be key ingredients in the production of opium, further communicating the drug-like and addicting impacts of relaxation and solace when amidst the ecological space. Autumn is compared to a gleaner which is a person who left over grains and produce in “And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep.” This implementation of simile conveys that the end of the growing season has come, and the gathering of crop remains. Thus, Keats expresses his central idea that beauty reaches its inevitable diminishing (Henning, 2018). The passing of time is symbolic of the fleetingness of life, which is captured in the line, “Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.” This can be attributed to the concept of the temporal frame of “thick time” in how we imagine human existence within nature between past, present, and future and respond with intra-actions to environmental forces (Neimanis, 2014).
The third stanza commences with “Where are the songs of spring? Ay, where are they?” Keats uses two rhetorical questions to convey the speaker’s intense curiosity about the passing of time and how humans tend to question the fleeting cycle of the natural world as it is everchanging and never constant. Additionally, Keats alludes to the pastoral tradition where shepherds would sing during springtime to commemorate growth. The natural imagery of, “While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,” captures the decline of nature as a soft death, perpetuating the tone of tranquillity and the idea that nature develops and ends in its own time. Furthermore, Keats engages the human senses through the auditory imagery of gnats buzzing in the line “Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn,” associating their hum to the mourning of autumn. Seasonal change represents the inevitability of death while also capturing nature as a spiritual source of renewal. Subsequently, my e-concept details how animals such as elephants embody spiritual and religious purpose for humans, communicating the powerful soul-feeding relationship between the human and nonhuman. Moreover, Keats sustains the calm tone but shifts the emphasis onto the decline of nature as he uses language to communicate the need to savour fleeting beauty before it depreciates. This is seen in the lines, “Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;/And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;” Lambs are recognised as sacrificial animals that are innocent and new to life, symbolising that when human and nonhuman beings reach their demise, the cycle of life continues once a purpose is served. The juxtaposition here further captures the proximity in which life and death coincide, meaning that one’s quietus is inevitable and natural. The poem ends with the line, “The red-breast whistles from a garden croft; And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.” This auditory imagery of the European Robin and swallows whistling and twittering, adds to the atmosphere of solitude while emphasising the sounds of the natural world pertinent to autumn. By capturing the serenity of bird sounds through an emotional persona amidst nature, Keats signifies that the human connection with nature and the nonhuman world is a sensory experience that has power and influence over one’s internal self.
Therefore, through the skilful exercise of language and poetic form, Keats’ Romantic poem crystalises the powerful connection between the human and nonhuman world. His portrayal of the vital force that is the natural landscape contributes to the validity of Transcorporeality whereby living and nonliving entities imbricate in the universal experiences of growth, existence, and death.
Henning, P (2018), ‘Keats, Ecocriticism, and the Poetics of Place’, Studies in Romanticism, 57(3): 407-427,499
Keats, John, “To Autumn.” 1819. Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44484/to-autumn
Neimanis, A, Walter, R.L (2014), 'Weathering Climate Change and the "Thick Time" of Transcorporeality', Hypatia, 29(3): 558-575
Elle Andreopoulos