analysis of this poem?

Question

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 mossed cottage-trees,

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,

For Summer has o'er-brimmed their clammy cell.



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;

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;

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep

Steady thy laden head across a brook;

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,

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;

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft,

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Muse · Accepted Answer

There are three stanzas (paragraphs) in the poem and they all explain the seasons of the year one after the other, excluding winter.

The poem starts with Summer, goes on to Autumn and ends with Spring. Like a cycle. The reader is watching the process, by looking at the flowers, the sky, the honey, the trees, the leaves... The poem is very visual, and the reader is a witness to the birth and death of Nature's creation.

Summer is the season of fertility: "fill", "swell", "plump", "o'er brimmed". This throws light upon the excess of nature's course. Everything is oozing, it's all clammy.

Autumn is the season of stagnation and sleep: "drowsed", "poppies", "asleep, "fumes". The flowers have stopped growing. The wind has started blowing. You feel the slowness and laziness of the season: "hours by hours", "careless", "patient".

And finally, Spring is the season of death: "soft-dying", "mourn", "dies", "wailful". The reader has just been a witness to the process of nature's life.

You can also compare the three seasons according to the sun. In Summer, the sun is "maturing". This can denote the sunrise, and even the moment where the sun reaches its peak at noon (ref. excess in the poem).
In Autumn, you can imagine the sun going down. This is the longest part of the day (ref. "hours by hours").
In Spring, it's a "soft-dying day", so this refers to the sunset, where the sun disappears. The last verse "And gathering swallows twitter in the skies" can refer to the glittering of the stars.

Barbara · Answer

Absolutely lovely. I would love to have this poem to frame and your truly friendships mean soooooo much. I Love butterfly's ,rainbow's, flowers, all of the above and I am sure many others do too. My Mom actually has a frame of real butterflies ...we made it many years ago. You are very gifted by finding this poem. I would frame that one for sure. Make some changes of your own and it might help with with your analysis to have the original and your's seperate. Then my dear frame yours for yourself...or both. At least I would at home. I would make the words look bold, some italic, anything that you like. This is yours. Good luck

Anonymous · Answer

Here, this is very helpful in briefly explaining it:
http://rupkatha.com/keatssodetoautumn.php

These are some notes regarding the Ode of the Autumn:
http://www.bartleby.com/126/1000.html#47

But the first link is helpful!

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analysis of this poem?

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