Ode to Autumn Notes

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