Daniel Cogan

16 April 2010

An Analysis of John Keats’ “To Autumn”

John Keats uses complex symbolism and metaphors in his poem “To Autumn” to convey properties of autumn, most prominently its prosperity, peacefulness and beauty.  He also contextually describes the political situation of the social classes.  On the surface according to the primary interpretation of the poem, Keats exalts autumn in his first stanza as a time of fruitful harvest.  In the second stanza he goes on to mention how gorgeous the nature is in autumn.  In the first lines of the third stanza, Keats consoles the season for its lack of recognition comparative to that of spring.  These lines induce the mood for the rest of the stanza, which describes the autumn night, simultaneously sad, gentle and beautiful.  The underlying interpretation of the poem is much different and relies on specific words to describe political unrest in Keats’ time.

In the first stanza Keats praises the quality most often associated with autumn, the prosperity of harvest.  It is because autumn is so much represented by this quality that Keats begins with it.  Due to the fact that this poem is an ode to autumn, he would want to capture the reader by appealing to an established and easy to understand perspective of the season.  This quality of simplicity arises in the first line when he writes, “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.”  This line is very straightforward and quickly tells what the poem will focus on.   Keats continues on this theme throughout the first stanza with other lines such as: “fill all fruit with ripeness to the core” (6), and “swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells/ With a sweet kernel” (7-8).  In describing the fruits of autumn, Keats personifies the sun as a helper to autumn in the production of the harvest: “Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;/ Conspiring with him how to load and bless” (2).

In the second stanza, Keats depicts the aesthetic appeal of autumn.  He does this by personifying autumn as a woman.  One indication that autumn is a woman, as opposed to a man, is in line 15: “Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind.”  He describes autumn through the places where she can be found and what she is doing.  The first such place is written about in line 14: “Thee sitting careless on a granary floor.”  Since the woman represents autumn, her qualities and locations would be similar.  For example, this line about sitting on the floor of a granary, parallels the great harvest of autumn since a granary is used to store wheat for the winter.  In this line, autumn is also representative of the grain that is on the floor.  Keats continues on in this manner for the rest of the stanza.  Also paralleling the fruitfulness of autumn are the other places the lady can be found, such as: “on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep” (16), or, “by a cider-press, with patient look” (21), and, “sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep/ Steady thy laden head across a brook” (19-20).  A gleaner is someone who gathers the leftover grain after the harvest.  All these lines have a common structure.  They tell where the lady is and then they describe what she is doing and/or how she is doing it.  Her setting is always used to describe the fruitfulness of autumn but her manner is used to distinguish the other qualities of autumn: “careless”, “patient”, “sound asleep” and “Steady.”  All these qualities convey a sense of relaxation to the reader, which is what many think of when they picture a nice autumn day.  Finally, in this stanza, Keats writes that each quality can be found in these places by those who look for them: “Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find…[the lady]”  (13).