Delhi Public School

B.S.City

Class-VIII English E-Content

Date: 07-04-2020

ODE TO AUTUMN

- John Keats

Read it aloud-

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 moss'd cottage-trees, 5

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; 10

For summer has o'erbrimm'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; 15

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; 20

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 25

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; 30

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

(Read it aloud twice and then try and understand)

John Keats (1795-1821) was one of the chief romantic

poets and authored famous poems such as

Endymion, Bright star etc. He was counted as a

major poet after Wordsworth. He belonged to

the second generation of romantic poets like

Lord Byron and P.B.shelley. He wrote for a very

short duration and became very famous. Some of his majorly

known poems are Ode to a Nightingale, Ode to a Grecian Urn,

Ode to autumn etc. The themes of keats’ works were love,

beauty, joy, nature, music and the mortality of human life.

● Popularity- Popularity: Written by John Keats, a popular

romantic poet, ‘To Autumn’ is a phenomenal ode that

celebrates the beauty and grandeur of the autumn season.

It was first published in 1819. The poem explores the

phenomenon of the fall season appreciatively. Its

popularity lies in the representation of many things related

to life and nature.

About the author

THINK- EVER THOUGHT WHY SEASONS CHANGE? WHICH

IS YOUR FAVOURITE SEASON?

EXPLANATION OF THE POEM

First stanza

Throughout the poem, the speaker

addresses autumn as if it were a person. In

the first stanza, he notes that autumn and

the sun are like best friends plotting how to

make fruit grow and how to ripen crops

before the harvest. The ripening process

discussed will make the seeds heavy and

fall off. The seeds will fall and the spring

flowers will grow. This chain will continue

and the whole process starting over again.

They think summer can last forever as they

buzz around the flowers. But it is the poet

who knows better.

Second Stanza

The second stanza describes the period

after the harvest, when autumn just

hangs out around the granary where

harvested grains are kept. Most of the

hard work has already been done, and

autumn can just take a nap in the

fields, walk across brooks, or watch

cider being made.

Third stanza

In the third stanza, the speaker notes

that the music of spring is a distant

memory, but that autumn’s music is

pretty cool too. This music includes

images of clouds and harvested fields

at sunset, gnats flying around a river,

lambs bleating, crickets singing and

birds whistling and twittering. All of the

sights and sounds produce a veritable

symphony of beauty.

Connotation:- • The speaker briefly describes the season and

immediately jumps into personifying it suggesting

that autumn and the sun are old pals.

• Mists often accompany chilly weather because the

moisture in the air condenses into droplets when

it’s cold.

• Autumn is a close friend of the sun, who is

maturing as the year goes on.

• A bosom friend is like that friend you told all your

secrets to in junior high.

• They are planning to make the fruits grow.

• The apples bend down the branches of mossy trees

with their weight. The trees do not belong to some

big farming sector but to simple farmers.

• Gourds include things like squash, pumpkins etc.

• The fallen seeds will later turn into new plants and

flowers when spring comes again.

• The bees are like prisoners inside of clammy cells,

they take the flower’s nectar.

• The word store suggests the abundance of crops.

• Winnowing is to separate the grain from the chaff.

• The day is dying at sunset but it’s not a tragic or

violent death. It’s soft and gentle.

• The sound of the gnats contributes to the song of

autumn.

• Crickets are singing by rubbing their wings

together otherwise known as chirping.

• (Continued)

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