To Autumn

3 Pages 644 Words

In the poem “To Autumn”, by John Keats, there are three stanzas, which are almost like three different poems in one. The first stanza describes summer, the next fall, and the last is looking for spring.
In the first stanza, Keats begins to describe summer. He doesn’t tell you this right away, but from the wording and the metaphors you can figure it out. “Seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness,” which is summer, “Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun,” which is saying that summer and sun go together. The entire wording in this first stanza makes summer sound like a person and really gives it a personality. Saying that summer and the sun are going to decide how and how much each plant will grow or bare fruit. They are the bestest of friends and will decide the fate of how nature is going to happen. Will this plant bare the most fruit, or will this one? But then they will decide when summer will end, “For Summer has o’er-brimmed their clammy cells.” When nature has had too much, that is.
In the second stanza of John Keats’ poem “To Autumn”, the topic switches to autumn. How ironic. “Who hath not seen thee…” he asks. Where is Autumn? “Thy hair


soft-lifted by the winnowing wind,” is such a greatly worded line. Here, the author is talking about Autumn, again like a person like he did with Summer. Keats is saying he Autumn has hair, and that Autumn’s hair is a billowing cloud of straw. Now, this isn’t what he is saying that happens really, it’s just a metaphor. But such a beautiful way to describe a season! Autumn is surrounded with the smell of poppies, and twined flowers. Autumn lays its head across a brook, or on a cider-press, and watches as it slowly fades away and becomes the next season, Spring.
The last stanza, Keats describes the songs of Spring. A little different than the first two stanzas where he was describing the actual seasons. Instead of the season Spring, it’s the son...