Friday, December 4, 2015

Why do you like the poem "To Autumn" by John Keats? Give your own ideas about the poem.

You are being asked to analyze John Keats poem “To Autumn” in order to decide what you enjoy about reading it. This question requires you to form an opinion based on the form, meaning, sound, or feelings evoked by the poem.
One reason to enjoy the poem is its topic; the season of autumn. For some people the passage of the seasons is one of life’s pleasures, and Keats describes autumn with vivid imagery. In addition, he compares it to spring by describing the differences between the two seasons. He tells the reader to let go of spring and let the sights, smells, and changes in nature advance. And, he explains how summer is coming to an end.

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.

Yeats uses the poem to focus on the delights and abundance as autumn brings the fruitful harvest to fruition. This poem does not lament the passing of the seasons, instead it explains how this transition is fulfilling.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
 Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,--

Another reason to enjoy the poem are the rhyming schemes and poetic techniques Keats uses in the three stanza piece. The poem “To Autumn” contains a number of different rhyming schemes with both internal and end rhymes. Perhaps this is an attribute which you enjoy about it. The rhyming schemes add interest and fluidity as one reads the poem. The poem contains examples of alliteration, and assonance, which add to the reader’s enjoyment, and provide explicit imagery. An example of alliteration is “winnowing wind,” while the words “reap’d and asleep” in the second stanza provide internal rhyme. At the end of the last stanza, the poet appeals to the reader with more auditory imagery by describing the sounds of autumn.

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.

Each person will find their own reason to enjoy the poem, and you will use text evidence to explain where your gratification comes from. 

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