Ode to Autumn / To Autumn

-John Keats
Ode: An ode is a lyric poem expressing
exalted or enthusiastic emotion. It is an
elaborate lyric, expressed in language that is
imaginative, dignified and sincere

Lyric: A type of poetry marked by emotion,

melody, imagination and a unified effect.
In informal English usage, lyrics are
the words of a song.
Autumn
 Ode to Autumn
 John Keats (1795 – 1821)
 Ode to Autumn – written in the Autumn of
1819 and published in 1820, it is one of the
last poems written by Keats.
 He died from consumption (tuberculosis) at
a very young age of 25.
 Stanza - I
 Apostrophe: Words addressed to an absent person as if
he were present, or to a thing or idea as if it could
appreciate them.
 This ode is an apostrophe addressed to the Autumn
season.
 L-1 Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
mists –a cloud of tiny water droplets suspended in the
atmosphere at or near the earth's surface that limits
visibility
mellow – (especially of a sound, flavour, or colour)
pleasantly smooth or soft; free from harshness,
- (of a person's character) tempered by maturity or
experience
mellow fruitfulness – refers to the abundance of various
kinds of fruits, nuts and grains that have ripened during
this season.
L-2 Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
maturing sun - causes to mature; that is, the sun
makes the fruit ripe. The union of the Autumn
season and the Sun brings forth all the fruits and
flowers of the season.

* Personification: A figure of speech where

animals, ideas or inorganic objects are given
human characteristics. Autumn, the Sun,
Summer, etc. are personified in this poem.
L-3, 4 Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
conspiring – implies spiritual and physical consummation.
In this poem the Autumn season is represented as a strong
reproductive force. The spiritual and physical union
between the Autumn season and the ‘maturing sun’
produce an abundance of fruits.
thatch: covering of a roof made of straw, leaves, or other
dried plants,
eaves: overhang of roof
 L-5 To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,

L-6 And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

L-7 - 8 To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel;
swell: to fatten, to make it
grow (adjective used as verb) plump: to fill out, to fatten
(adjective used as verb)
gourd: the gourd family
includes squash, pumpkins,
and cucumbers
L-8 – 11 … to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimmed their clammy cells.
later flowers: while the majority of flowers bloom in
Spring and Summer, there are late-blooming flowers
which bloom in Autumn.
o’er-brimmed: over-filled
clammy cells: sticky cells
Until they think…cells: Owing to the inexhaustible store
of honey the bees may think that the summer is
endless (a sympathetic projection of poetical
imagination into the minds of the bees)
 Stanza - II
While the first stanza opens with an apostrophe, the
second opens with a rhetorical question.
rhetorical question: A question posed for its rhetorical
effect and not intended to induce or require a reply. It
is frequently used in oratory for persuasion.
L-12 Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Store: an abundance, a great quantity; a storehouse or
warehouse
* This is a rhetorical question. Keats points out that the
personified Autumn can be seen in many pictures of
abundance of the season.
L-13 -14 Sometimes whoever seeks thee abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Montage: the technique of selecting, editing, and
piecing together separate sections of film to form a
continuous whole.
Tableaux: a group of models or motionless figures
representing a scene from a story or from history
•The second stanza presents a series of vivid images
(tableau or even a montage) to reinforce the idea of
abundance and fruitfulness
•The first picture shows Autumn as a harvester
sitting on the granary floor, in a relaxed and
contented mood
L-15 Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
winnowing: a process of separating the chaff from the
grain by fanning or by means of the wind
As the harvester lazily sits on the granary floor his/her
hair is softly blown and lifted by the wind produced by
the winnowing process.
This is the first of the four tableaux, with the
personification of Autumn as a harvester.
The rest of the tableaux will also present typical Autumn
activities.
L-16-18 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;
furrow: a cut or trench made by a plow, here a line of
grains to be cut
drowsed: made sleepy/drowsy
fume of poppies: made drowsy by the heavy scent of the
poppies
Reapers
L-19 – 20 And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
gleaner: someone who picks up grain left in the field by
the harvesters
keep steady: trying to keep balance
laden head: carrying a basket of grains/corn
L-21-22 Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.
L-23-26 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;
L-27-29 Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
L-30-33 And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing, and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;
L-34 And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
 The Music of Autumn
Cricket

Redbreast

Gnat

Swallow

Lamb
Structure and Form
3 stanzas of 11 lines (unusual because
odes typically contain 10 lines)
Odal hymn – strophe(1st part),
antistrophe(2nd part) and epode(3rd
part)
Iambic pentameter(but greatly
modified)
“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”
RHYME

A
B
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B
C
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D
C
C
E
A
B
A
B
C
D
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D
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C
E