Upon first glance, John Keats”s “To Autumn” may seem like a deeply descriptive poem about changing of seasons. However, a closer look will reveal that through his apostrophe, he speaks of autumn as a person to convey his perception of change and death and rebirth.
Stanza 1 has a regular pattern of 10 syllables on each line and the rhyme goes; A, B, A, B, C, D, E, D, C, C, E. The tone is relaxed and definitely has a positive effect by describing ‘and fill all fruit with ripeness to the core’ Keats tends to describe everything fresh and ripe Keats”s begins to describe the cycle of progression. Mention of the “maturing sun” of the assumed morning as maturing would be associated with the sun rising reflects through to the early stages of life. This continues to line 6 where “to fill all fruit with ripeness to the core” most nearly represents an individual after adolescent stages, ready to tackle the world, or, in a fruits sense, ready to be consumed.
“Until they think warm days will never cease” deems the consummation of the unripe youth “for summer has o”er-brimmed their clammy cells” line eleven. Keat’s personifies the ‘maturing sun’ as a ‘close bosomed friend of seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness’
In the second stanza there is a regular rhythm with ten syllables on each line with a couple of exceptions of 9s the rhyme goes as follows A, B, A,B, C, D, E, C, D, D, E. and again the tone is very relaxed and soft
Keats introduces visual imagery combined with the personification of autumn. The season now takes on an identity as a human but more likely to be a woman autumn”sitting careless on a granary floor/thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind” The hands of life”s clock continue to move with the comparison of the harvest”s “half reaped furrow” with the downward spiral of aging. This is further apparent in line twenty-one “or by a cider press with patient look” contrasts the busy nature of the first stanza such as an older person is at peace and more sedate than in his younger years. It is now when “thou watchest the last oozing hours by hours” as death is approaching.
The senses of hearing are tapped into the third and final stanza of “To Autumn” beginning with “Where are the songs of spring? Ay, where are they?”. The proposal of this question parallels the unfolding of death when one questions where his youth went, regretting wasted moments. However, Keats states, “think not of them, thou hast thy music too” line twenty four almost commanding to reflect, but not regret, as death is just as beautiful as life itself. Even as “in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn” line twenty seven, seconds later, “full grown lambs loud bleat throughout hilly bourn” line thirty one therefore offering that although death is the end, it only
