Class - 8

Ode to Autumn
Summary
-John Keats

Ode to Autumn was written by English romantic poet John Keats (1795 - 1821) in 1819, and is one
of the most studied and celebrated poems in English literature. The poem praises autumn, describing
its abundance, harvest, and transition into winter. It also uses intense, sensuous imagery to elevate
the fleeting beauty of the moment. It is also one of the poet’s last poems, before his death in
Rome at the age of 25.

Autumn is associated with mists and a general sense of calm abundance. It is also said to be a
goddess, precisely Carpo (Καρπώ, meaning “(I) reap”) the Greek goddess of autumn. She is
said the friend of the maturing sun, precisely Apollo or Helios, Greek god of the sun. They both
conspire together to bless the trees and vines with fruits and vegetables. They make the fruit so
heavy that the branches of the mossy apple trees bend down. The make the gourd swell; hazels
grow fat with nuts; flowers keep growing more buds from which bees pollinate. The poet says that
these bees think that the warmth of autumn will last forever, as summer brought so many flowers
that the hives are overflowing

In the next stanza, the poet says that autumn is unnoticed amongst places where her bounty is
stored. When people will look around, people may find autumn sitting lazily on the granary floor,
her hair being picked up by the light breeze. Or they might find her drowsing in the furrow she had
set out to reap, doused by the fume of poppies, while the next bunch of flowers is spared.
Sometimes she may be found as the gleaner, whose job is to collect crops after cutting, trying to
stay steady with the load of fruit on her head. Other times, she may be found by the keg, staring
patiently as the press oozes out pulp and cider.

Finally, the poet asks autumn of the sounds of spring (most probable her sister Auxo, meaning
“fertilizer”, goddess of spring). Then the poet asks us to forget them, for autumn has her own
music. The environment is set in a scene where barred clouds bloom the soft dying-day and gives a
touch of pink over the harvested fields. The chorus is made from a choir of gnats, which hum
mournfully among the sallow as the tide rises and falls. Adult lambs bleat loudly from the hilly
bourn. Hedge-crickets sing in a harshly soft tone as the red-breasted bird whistles in a small
garden. Lastly, there is the twitter of swallows as they gather in the sky.

Md. Mahmud Muntasir