To Autumn by John Keats Summery, theme, tone etc

Introduction to Poetry & Reading Skills

To Autumn

-by John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fuitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

  With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

To bend with apples the moss'd 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-brimm'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;

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;

  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.

★★★Theme:
The theme of a work is not its subject buts its central ideas which may be stated directly or in an implied from. In short, Theme is central idea in a piece of writing. The whole body explains the theme.
The theme of the poem is fulfilment or Maturity.

★★★Rhyme scheme:
Rhyme means a word that has the same sound or ends with the same sound as another word. Generally, it means the recurrence of similar sounds in the closing syllabus of different verses. There are end rhyme, internal rhyme, masculine rhyme feminine rhyme and trisyllabic rhyme.
the rhyme scheme of the poem is abab cde dcce.

★★★Author's position: Objective
Author's position is the situation or condition in which he or she exists. Their position includes their beliefs, disbeliefs,biasness, disinterest and assumption of them.

★★★Mood and tone: Friendly, earnest, sincere,impersonal

Tones means the attitude the poet takes towards a theme or a subject. Like the manner of a person the manner of a poem be friendly, or a combatant towards its reader. Again, the tone of a poem may tell one how the speaker feels about himself or herself, cocksure or humble, sad or glad.

★★★Figures of speech:

★Alliteration: Fill all fruit, to swell gourd, and plump the hazel shells".

★Onomatopoeia: "With fruit the vines that round thatch eves run".

And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Untilled they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has or brimmed their clammy cells.
They hair soft lifted buy the winning wind",

★Alliteration: Summer,brimmed,clammy
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from
hilly bourn, twitter

★Assonance: Drowsed, poppies, hook

★★★Stanza: It has three regular or uniform stanzas, each stanza consisting of eleven lines. It lyrical quality.

 আপনি যদি ইংরেজি Reading, Writing, Speaking ও Grammar এ দূর্বল হয়ে থাকেন অথবা, এগুলোতে ভালো করতে চান তবে এখানে ক্লিক করুন!

★★★Summary:
The poet describes the bounties of Autumn vividly in the excerpt. The stanza is highly sensuous. The poet has given the vivid pictures of Autumn through word painting that gratifies our sense. The Autumn counsels with the sun to bring fruits to a state of perfect fullness and ripeness. During this season the grapes ripen that hang around the edge of thatched roofs. The branches of apple trees are overburdened with the mature apples. The gourd attains its maximum size. The hazelnut s are filled with sweets kernel. The followers also bloom profusely in this season and the bees collect honey from the followers. The beehives filled with honey are also the charm of autumn.

★★★Imagery:
★1st stanza: "the ripe grapes and apples","gourds","hazelnuts are concrete images. Over&brimming honeycomb is appealingly to the sense of sight and taste.

★2nd stanza: "In the person of a reaper", "a winnower", " agleaner and a cider-presser(juice maker)".

★3rd stanza: The "wailfall choir" of gnats ,"the bleating of lambs", "the chirp of hedge-cricket", "the songs of robins and the twitter of swallows appeals to the sense of hearing".


©Written by: Rohomot Ali
Edited by: Biplob Prodhan