The poem uses nature to symbolize the stages in someone’s life, ”Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness” creates a very springtime atmosphere yet it also suggests a sense of ripeness. We can see that this stanza is appealing to the sense of sight as it creates a perfect picture of the ”Maturing Sun”. At the beginning of this stanza it creates a picture of beautiful, deserted mountains in the springtime, as all fruit is filled with ”with ripeness to the core”. The poem is used to symbolize the stages in ones life and would suggest that this stage of the poem represents the prime of someone’s life as ”they think warm days will never cease”.
Keats uses a more positive side of nature in the first stanza, the words ”fruitfulness, ripeness, swell and plump” helps to build a calm sunny atmosphere. Keats also uses religious words such as ”blessed” and ”vines” which reminds us of the wine at the last supper. ”To bend with apples the moss’d cottage tree” appeals to our sense of touch, it builds a peaceful picture of beauty in our minds. Shortly after the bees think summer will never end, this reflects the transitory nature of life.
The next stanza portrays images of comfort and relaxation, especially when the poet describes someone as ”sitting careless on a granary floor” then there is an image of a person ”sound asleep” in the middle of a field. The poet makes it seem like everyone has stopped everything and decided to laze about. The poet has effectively created a dreamlike mood here as he describes ”the fume of poppies”. The whole idea of laziness in the poem relates to the middle aged period in a persons life. It is as if the person doesn’t want to get any older and doesn’t want ‘winter’ to take its natural turn.
The stanza ends with the image of worker pressing apples, the poet gives us an idea of the calm, gentle mood that he has ”thou watchest the last oozings”. The third and last stanza brings the long awaited and dreaded winter, the stanza begins giving us the idea that the poet is in a calm and collected mood. The poet realizes how spring is usually associated with happy times yet strongly disagrees, he believes that autumn is the bringer of the good times. ”And touch the stubble-plain with rosy hue” this paints a beautiful yet melancholic picture of autumn which is very different from the ripe abundant images of the first two stanzas. This also express’ the main theme of the poem, that life is a mixture of good and bad times.
I have concluded that both poets have gone threw similar stages in there own lives, however I have noticed that Keats accepts changes and tries to move on whereas Wordsworth leaves himself in a worried state and cant quite grasp the fact that life changes as we get older, sometimes for the best and sometimes for the worst.
