ODE
TO AUTUMN
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-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 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'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
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 swallows, 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 (1795-1821) is a well known English Poet of nineteenth century. He shines singularly
out among the galaxy of such great poets of his centuries as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley,
Byron, Tennyson, Browning and Arnold although he got the least long age (only 25 Years)
among all of them. Though that small age he was destined to live, he wrote a good number of
such poems without which no anthology of English poetry is ever completed.”Ode to
Nightingale”, “ To Autumn”, ”Ode on a Grecian Urn and “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” are
known and remembered for their unmatched eloquent expression and sublimity .He writes about
love and beauty in a very sweet sensuous manner.
Ode To Autumn is known as the subtlest and
most beautiful of all Keats odes. It seems generally agreed that Ode To Autumn is a rich and vivid description of
nature.
"To Autumn"
is one of the last poems written by Keats. His method of developing the poem is
to heap up imagery typical of autumn. His autumn is early autumn, when all the
products of nature have reached a state of perfect maturity. Autumn is
personified and is perceived in a state of activity.
QUESTION
& ANSWERS
1.
How
does the poet create a sense of bounty in Ode to Autumn?
John
Keats describes the bounty of autumn in the first stanza. Autumn is the season
of all mists. It is the season during which different kinds of fruits ripen and
it seems that autumn actively works with the sun in bringing about the maturing
of the fruits. The roof of the vines are filled with grapes during autumn
season. The branches of the apple trees are bowed nearly to the ground with the
weight of the apples. The hazel nuts are filled with sweet kernels. The bees
suck the sweetness of the flowers and feel that these flowers represent the
continuation of summer.
2.
Describe
the personification of Autumn?
John
Keats describes the activities of autumn as a winnower, reaper, gleaner and a
cider press. Autumn is personified in the shape of a winnower who is winnowing
in the fields. Secondly, it is also personified as a reaper who has been
engaged in reaping the corn. Thirdly, autumn may be seen in the character of a
gleaner who is walking along with the weight of grains upon her head. Finally,
autumn is seen in the figure of a woman who is crushing the ripen apples in the
wooden presser to obtain juice from which cider is to be made. She sits by the
cider press and watches patiently the apple juice following out of the presser
drop by drop.
3.
Describe
the music of Autumn?
John
Keats describes the music of autumn in the last stanza of the poem. Spring is
distinguished by its sweet songs and birds. These songs are not heard in
autumn. But autumn has its own peculiar music. The sounds of the autumn are
heard in the evenings when the sun is setting. The gnats fly above amount of
the shrubs growing at the river side. Besides to the gnats singing in a sad
chorus, the bleating of the full grown lambs is heard from the hills which
bound landscape. Then there is the chirping of grasshoppers which play mischievously
on the grass. There is also the high bold and delicate singing of red breast
from an orchard. Finally there is twittering of the swallows which are
gathering in large number to get ready for their winter migration.
Language Study (
Parts of Speech)
|
Noun
|
Pronoun
|
Common Noun
|
Proper Noun
|
Collective noun
|
|
Autumn Sun , Lilly Bourn Apples,
Cricket Fruit, Red breast Flower, Swallow Trees, Sky Ground, Wind Bees Wind
Summer Furrow Floor Wind, Gleaner Poppies ,Vines Brook, Thatch Spring, Eves
Clouds, Kernel Grants ,Wind River ,Muistor
|
Him
They
Who
Thee
Them
Thy
Thou
|
Fruits
Vines
Trees
Cottage
Days
Flower
Floor
Brook
Wind
Garden
Bees
Press
Hill
Granites
Clouds
Glance
|
The Gourd
The River Swallows
The Red Breast Summer
Spring
Autumn
Sky
Sun
Light Wind
Rosy,
hue Winnowing
|
Bees
Swath
Clamming, Cells
|
|
Verb
|
Gerund
|
Adjective
|
Adverb
|
|
Load, Bless, Twined Round, Watches Swell, Bloom Plump,
Baread Set, Think, Mourn Cease, Sink Maturing, Live Conspiring, Die Loading,
Bleat Seek, Whistles Soft, Lifted, Twitter Winnowing, Drowsed
|
Maturing Conspiring Winnowing Oozing Sinking
|
Sweet
More
Warm
Mellow
Close Bosom
Maturing Ripeness
Patient Look
Warmday Winnowing wind Barred Clouds
Soft Dying Day Wailful Choir
|
Aboard
Careless
A lot
Loud
|
Ref: International
Journal of Academic Research and Reflection Vol. 3, No. 1, 2015 ISSN 2309-0405
Prepared by
Dr A S Kanna, Asst Professor of English, Silver Jubilee Govt. College (Autonomous) Kurnool
