ODE TO AUTUMN by John Keats

TEXT and Explanations of Ode to Autumn

I

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-eves run;

To bend with apples and 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, late flowers for the bees.

Until they think warm days will never cease.

For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

II

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,

Drows’d 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 brook:

Or by a cider-press, with patient look,

Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

III

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 red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

NOTES AND EXPLANATIONS OF ODE TO AUTUMN

Stanza I

Season of mists: Autumn is the season when mists gather on open grounds and marshy or wet places in the mornings and evenings.

Mellow: ripe.

Mellow fruitfulness: ripening of fruits which grow in large number. Fruits ripen in autumn in England.

Close bosom friend: very intimate or personal friend.

The maturing sun: The sun that ripens the fruits. It is the warm rays of the sun which ripen the fruits.

Conspiring: agreeing and entering into the plot. ‘Conspiring’ ordinarily has a bad meaning, as it means entering into a plot for an evil purpose. Here, however, the word is used in a good sense-it simply means agreeing.

How to load and bless….the Vines: How to bless or make happy the Vine-creepers and to load them with clusters of grapes. A creeper or tree is ‘blessed’ when it bears fruits. Vine is the creeper that bears grapes.

The thatch-eaves: eaves are the projecting lower edges of the roof. The cottages in the villages are thatch-covered, and the vine creeper grows along the caves of these thatches. Thatch: rooting of straw or rushes.

The mossed cottage-trees: The apple-trees which are growing in the orchard by a cottage and which are covered with moss. Apple trees are often covered with moss, a kind of greenish small plan growing on moist surface.

To bend…..trees: to make so many apples grow on these trees that they bend under their weight. To the core: to the very centre.

Fill all fruit….core: make the fruits ripe through and through.

To swell: to make plump or fat, as fully grown gourd should.

The gourd: a kind of green egg-shaped large vegetable, like vegetable-marrows, pumpkins etc.

Plump: make swell out. Keats has used the adjective plump here as a verb. A rather unusual use of the word.

Plump the hazel shell: hazel nuts have shells, and the shells swell out when the inside of the nut is ready. With a sweet kernel: kernel is the soft part within the hard shell of a nut, which is eaten.

Budding: growing in the form of buds.

Later flowers: flowers which bloom late in the season of Autumn.

For the bees: the bees like flowers as they collect honey from them.

Until they think…cease: until the bees get the impression that the warm weather will continue for ever and they will always have flowers to gather honey. When winter comes, flowers do not bloom any more.

Summer: the warm days of summer. O’er brimmed: over-filled; filled to overflowing

Clammy: sticky and wet.

Their clammy cells: The cells in bee-hives are sticky and wet to touch them as they are full of honey. Now honey is sticky and wet.

Cells: a cell is a small cavity in a bee-hive.

For summer….clammy cells: Through the long and warm summer days the bees have collected so much honey that the cells in their hives are overfull.

Stanza II

Amid thy store: in the midst of your plenty or abundance. Autumn is the season of plenty.

Who hath…store: any one can see the embodiment of the spirit of Autumn in the midst of the ripening crops and fruits of the season.

Whoever seeks abroad: whoever goes out to seek the spirit of Autumn in the open country-side.

Abroad: outside. In the open.

May find thee sitting careless: autumn first takes the form of a tired winnower who is resting on the floor of the granary in a careless manner.

Sitting careless: ‘careless’ because this winnower has no fear of the future; she knows that much corn has been gathered, threshed and winnowed already.

Soft-lifted: an unusual compound word. Keats was very fond of such compound words. It means ‘lifted softly or gently.

The winnowing wind: to winnow is to free grain from chaff (=husk). Dirt etc. by fanning it with large hand-fans.

Granary: storehouse for grain.

A half-reap’d furrow: a furrow is a narrow trench that the plough makes in the soil. Corn is planted in the furrows. A furrow has been only half-reaped by the reaper when she feels tired and lies down to rest.

Drowsed: made ‘drosy.’ Made sleepy.

The fume of poppies: the sleepy smell of poppy flowers. The poppy is a red or scarlet flower from the seeds of which opium is made. So the poppy is associated with sleep.

Hook: curved cutting instrument with which com is reaped.

Spares: does not cut or attack.

The next swath: the next row of com.

All its twined flowers: flowers which are twining or coiling round the com, i.e. growing inter-twisted in the corn. Poppy flowers grow in this manner in the wheat fields.

Spares the next swath…. Flowers: does not attack the next row of corn where poppy flowers are growing. The reaper was about to cut down this row of corn when she felt very sleepy.

A gleaner: a man or woman who gathers ears of corn left by the reapers.

Like a gleaner: taking the form of a gleaner.

Thy laden head: your head burdened with a load of com which has been gathered in the fields.

Thou dost…head: you keep your head steady or erect or straight.

Keep steady…brook: as you are crossing a brook or stream with a load of corn on your head, you do not waver or stumble, you walk with your head steady.

Brook: small stream.

Cider: a kind of drink made out of apple-juice.

A ciderpress: a press or pressing instrument in which ripe apples are pressed so that the juice comes out.

With patient loo:, ie., patiently, without any worry or anxiety.

The last oozings: the last drop that come out slowly (to ooze: to pass slowly through pores etc.)

Hours by hours: for hours together.

Stanza III

Where are…spring: Some people may long for the sweet songs of spring in Autumn. The songs of spring are the music of many birds, and insects who are happy at the advent of the season which, for many of them, is the mating season.

Ay: yes.

Think not of them: The poet asks Autumn not to worry about the songs of spring, but Autumn has his own music too, which is as good as the music of spring.

Thou hast…too: This music is described in the lines below.

Barred clouds: ‘Barred’ has two syllables. ‘Barred clouds’ means clouds lying in long ‘bars’ (in ‘bars of clouds’) or ‘clouds with strips or streaks like bars.’ In the evening clouds seem to be resting in the evening sky and glow in the light of the setting sun.

The soft dying day: The day, that is dying gently, the day-light that is slowly fading from the sky.

While barred clouds…day: While bars of clouds glowing in the light of the setting sun touch with a soft warm glow the light of the day which is gradually fading from the earth and the sky.

Touch the stubble-plains: Stubble means stumps of grain or straw left by the reapers after corn or straw has been gathered. ‘Stubble plains’ means reaped corn fields where stubble is left.

Touch..rosy hue: The glowing clouds in the sky cast a ruddy glow on the stubble plains.

Rosy hue: red colour; colour of rose.

While barred clouds…..with rosy hue: i.e. at sunset time, in the evening. These two lines taken together mean only ‘in the evening time’. The idea is that whereas the songs of spring are generally heard in the morning when the birds wake up and sing, the songs of Autumn are heard in the evening.

Wailful: mournful, as if wailing or lamenting loudly.

Choir: boys singing together as in the church. Here it simply means chorus, the gnats all singing together.

Gnats: a kind of small insect which are found flying in thick clusters in marshy places in the evening. The small gnats mourn, the small gnats produce a mournful kind of music, a sad kind of music.

The river sallows: the willow trees (a kind of drooping plant with long leaves which grow by rivers).

Borne aloft: carried high.

Sinking: coming. Lives or dies: blows or sinks.

Borne aloft…..dies: The gnats are tiny insects which are easily carried high by a light breeze and come down when the breeze does not blow any longer. As the gnats float in the breeze their tiny wings vibrate rapidly and a wailful kind of sound is produced. The gnats produce this sound mostly in Autumn when cold weather is about to come.

Full-grown lambs: lambs which are not small, hence they bleat loudly.

Loud bleat: bleat loudly.

Hedge crickets: A cricket is a kid of insect that chirps. A hedge is a fence of bushes or low trees. Crickets are often found in the evening chirping in the hedge.

Treble soft: high pitched voice. Treble is the highest female or boy’s voice. So treble cannot be soft or gentle; only in the case of a small bird, even the treble is not shrill, it is sweet.

Soft: meaning sweet rather than gentle.

The red breast: a small singing bird so called because it has a reddish hatch on its breast.

A Garden croft: ‘a piece of land enclosed for a garden.’ It is a small piece of enclosed land adjoining a dwelling house.”

Swallows: a kind of fast moving bird which migrates to warmer countries at the approach of winter.

Gathering swallows: swallows which build their nests in different places in summer gather together at the approach of winter and fly to warmer countries.

Twiller…skies: as they fly about in large numbers in the sky, twitter and chirp. This is a sign that winter is coming.

EXPLANATIONS WITH CRITICAL COMMENTS

Stanza I

Season of mists……..their clammy cells.

In this stanza, the poet has described the bounty of Autumn. Autumn is the season of mists and of the ripening of fruit. It seems that autumn actively co-operates with the sun in bringing about the maturity of the fruits. Autumn and the sun work together for the ripening of all kinds of fruits. The wines running round the edges of branches of the apple trees are bent nearly to the ground with their weight of apples. The apple trees growing in the cottage gardens are covered with moss and are weighed down with fruit. All fruit is filled with sweetness through and through. The gourd grows bigger and bigger. The hazel nuts are filled with a sweet kernel. Certain varieties of flowers also bloom in Autumn. The bees suck the sweetness of these flowers. To the bees, it seems. That these flowers represent a continuation of summer, the sticky cells of the honeycombs are filled to overflowing with honey, and yet Autumn provides more flowers in case the bees would like to draw more sweetness from them.

Stanza II

Who hath not seen……..hours by hours.

This stanza describes the occupations of Autumn. Autumn is here personified as a winnower, as a gleaner and as a cider presser. All these operations—winnowing, reaping, gleaning and cider pressing belong to Autumn and are here supposed to be performed by women. Autumn is, therefore, seen here as a woman. First, Autumn is seen as a woman doing the work of winnowing, that is separating the chaff from the grains. If anyone wants to see Autumn, he may go into the fields and he will see women engaged in the winnowing operation, while the breeze ruffles the locks of their hair. This is one picture of Autumn. Secondly, we can see Autumn, in the shape of a reaper, who has been engaged in reaping corn but who, in the course of her work, is so overcome by the sleep-inducing smell of poppies hat she falls asleep, with the result that the next row of com remains unreaped. Thirdly, Autumn may be seen in the character of a gleaner. A gleaner is a woman who collects grains from the field when the crops has been removed. A gleaner may be seen walking along steadily with the weight of grains upon her head, crossing a stream. The sight of the gleaner is also symbolic of Autumn. Finally, Autumn may be seen in the figure of a woman who is crushing the ripe apples in the wooden press to obtain their juice from which cider is to be made. This woman sits by the cider-press and watches patiently and apple-juice flowing out of the press, drop by drop. The sight of the cider press is also associated with Autumn. Thus in this stanza. Autumn has been given a concrete shape and a concrete personality. Autumn is seen in our different guises, corresponding to the different occupations of this season.

Stanza III

Where are the songs………twitter in the skies.

In this stanza, the poet describes the sound of Autumn. Spring is distinguished by its sweet songs. These sweet songs are absent in Autumn. But there is no need to feel any regret on that accord. Autumn has its own peculiar music. The sounds of Autumn are generally heard in the evening. When the sun is setting, a soft glow irradiates the fields from which the crop has been reaped, leaving the stumps behind. The long drawn-out clouds in the sky look like the bars of a grate. At this time, the melancholy buzzing of the gnats is heard. The gnats fly about among the shrubs growing on the river side. The gnats are carried upwards when the wind is strong and that come downwards when the wind is feeble (Or, the singing of the gnats is heard when the wind is blowing and it is not audible when the wind stops). In addition to the gnats singing in a melancholy chorus, the bleating of full grown lambs is heard from the hills which bound the landscape. Then there is the chirping of the grasshopper. Next comes the high, bold and delicate song of the twittering of the swallows which are gathering together in large numbers for their winter migration. The gnats mourn by the river; the lambs bleat on the hill; the grasshopper sings from the hedge; the redbreast whistles from the garden and the swallows twitter in the sky. Such is the glorious music of Autumn.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION

Development of Thought

In the first stanza the poet gives us a description of the prolific bounties of Autumn. Autumn is a season of ‘mellow fruitfulness’. Ripe fruits and flowers. Grapes and apples, gourds, hazel-nuts and other ripe fruits appear at this time. Then late flowers and the bees together with honey come. It is a season of fruitfulness and joyousness.

In the second stanza, we have a splendid personification of Autumn. Autumn is personified under four pictures typical of the season. First, as a harvester sitting carelessly on the granary floor during winnowing; secondly, as a tired reaper fallen asleep in the very midst of his reaping; thirdly as a gleaner following his walk home across a brook in the evening with a load of sheaves on his head. Lastly, it is represented as a cider-presses watching intently the press squeezes juice out of fruits.

The poet then questions—Where are the songs of Spring? The poet feels that though the beauties of Spring are absent in Autumn, yet Autumn has a beauty of its own. Then follows a picture of the stubble fields which are coloured red in the crimson light of the setting sun. In Autumn the full grown lambs bleat aloud, the grass-hoppers chirp, the robin sings a treble note, and the swallows twitter as they fly in the sky.

Critical Comments

The Ode to Autumn shows Keats in a rich mood of serenity. There are no questions and conflicts in the poem. Autumn is not regarded here as the prelude to winter, but it is a season of mellow fruitfulnesss—a season of ripeness and fulfilment. The poet is not disturbed by the thought of winter that will soon follow; he is content with his present happiness. Once Keats wrote: “I look not for happiness if it is not in the present hour, nothing startles me beyond the moment.” Here and now in Autumn, everything has reached fruition, and “ripeness is all”. Though apparently the Ode is objective and descriptive, there is behind the objective description the serene tranquillity of the poet. “The poetry of earth is never dead.” A momentary regret, however, crosses his mind:

Where are the songs of spring, Ay, where are they?

Immediately the question is stilled, and the momentary regret gives place to contentment:

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too.

“This joy in the present, the isolation of the beauty of the hour, the making of it a divine possession and losing in its loveliness the pain of life—is one of the chief marks of Keats’ genius”; and it is this power of isolating the present hour from the past or the future, which gives to the Ode to Autumn its unique charm.

The Ode to Autumn is faultless in its art and workmanship. It shows at their best all the qualities of Keats as poetic artist—his pictorial power, his economy of expression, his classical restraint, his sense of proportion, and his grave and solemn music. In no other poem, again, does his simple and direct love of nature find a better and fuller expression.

The Ode gives a graphic description of the season of autumn with all its richness. The first stanza describes its gifts of ripe fruits and new crops of flowers. The second stanza gives an authentic image of autumn through living personifications like those of a reaper, a gleaner and a wine grower. The third stanza describes the music of autumn the plaintive singing of the gnats, the bleating of lambs, the chirp of the crickets and the soft treble of the redbreast.

In the Ode to Autumn, Keats wrote a poem which shows Greek spirit and Greek way of writing more than any other poem in the English language. It is classical in the true sense of the word. There is here no romantic strangeness or mystery, no emotional agitation. Everything here is simple, direct and clear, and the poem is pervaded throughout by a mood of serene tranquility. Moreover, the living personifications of autumn are exactly in the myth-making mode of the ancient Greeks.

The Ode to a Nightingale and the Ode on a Grecian Urn may have a greater appeal by reason of their pathos and glow of emotion, but the Ode to Autumn is unique in its “rounded perfection and felicity of loveliness”.

Conclusion

The highest epithets of appreciative eulogy have been bestowed on this Ode by critics and commentators. The exquisite sense of unity and proportion leaving a single art impression, the rich but subdued melody of the long lines, perfectly adapted to the mood of brooding and mellow contentment, the wonderful description of Nature for the sake of Nature, tinged with that sweet sensuousness which is a trait in the poet’s nature, the charming and vivid personifications of Autumn in the Greek manner, the absence of subjectivity and melancholy—all these fully deserve the eulogy of the subtlest critic, Swinburne speaks of this ode as “perhaps the nearest to absolute perfection.”

To Palgrave, it is “another masterpiece.” Sidney Colvin remarks: “It opens out no such far-reaching avenues of thought and feeling as the Ode to a Nightingale and The Grecian Urn, but in execution is perhaps the completest of them all. In the first stanza the bounty, in the last the pensiveness of the time, are expressed in words so transparent and direct that we almost forget they are words at all, and Nature herself and the season seen speaking to us; while in the middle stanza the touches of literary art and Greek personification have an exquisite congruity and lightness.” Keats has reached his own ideal here to load every rift with an oar’.

The details of the rich store of Autumn—its fruit, flower, etc., of the happy scene of ripe harvest, of the songs of birds are charming both by their appropriateness and their clarity. The vines run round the thatch eaves, apples hang on the mossed cottage-trees; lambs bleat from the hilly bourne, gnats mourn and swallows twitter in the skies.