On the Ripeness of Life - Analysis of John Keats to Autumn - Essay Example

? [Teacher       On the Ripeness of Life:  An Analysis of John Keats's “To Autumn” A surface reading of John Keats’s “To Autumn” gives us vivid images of the season: its abundance, colors, and sounds. The poet, being the master of his craft, carefully structures each stanza to represent the movement of autumn — from how it begins, to how it continues through mid-autumn, and up until it ends. Interestingly, the phase of autumn also parallel how each day moves from morning, noon, and evening. Keats captures the splendor of the season’s abrupt changes in its phase and skillfully turned its scenes into a short three-stanza masterpiece. The poet, who casually addresses the season as “To Autumn”, expresses his direct and personal bond with the season by regarding it as an intimate companion. In this way, autumn is personified as a “close bosom-friend” of the sun, with whom he conspires for fruitful abundance. The characterization of autumn into a person is further emphasized by its actions “to bend with apples” (5), to “fill all fruit with ripeness” (6), “to swell the gourd”, to “plump with hazel shells” (7) and “to set budding” (8). These activities of autumn represent its influence on the season’s bounties such as the ripening of fruits and even the late blooming of flowers for the bees. In the first stanza, the speaker uses vivid description to fill our senses with richness and abundance found at the start of autumn. By identifying autumn as the “season of mists”, the poet arouses our imagination of a moist and fresh surrounding. By describing the season as a time for “mellow fruitfulness”, the poet bathes our mind with warm colors of the sun which gently ripens the fruits to the core and keeps the flowers in bloom. Moving to the poem’s second stanza, autumn is now given a concrete form of a woman who works both as gleaner and reaper in the field. The woman represents the gentleness of this phase in autumn where the fields are left bare because of the ongoing harvest. In effect, this gives the readers a melancholic feel to what is happening in the second stanza: the woman is found sitting alone on the granary floor or sleeping on the field: 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 (14-17) These images portray contemplation and contentment on the part of the woman. It signifies a rather laid-back and relaxed time of the season when she could just let the wind blow her hair gently, leave her hook on the field, and just take a nap on a “half-reap’d furrow”, leaving the flowers uncut and her work in the field unfinished. Moreover, the second stanza also catches the woman balancing the basket of crops on her head and other times, she is seen looking patiently at a cider-press that squeezes fruit juices for hours. The line which projects the slow movement in every trickle of the cider signifies that the end of the season is looming in the background. In effect, it gives us a sense of contentment and lethargy felt in the surrounding. Eventually, in the third stanza, the poet asks a rhetorical question on the whereabouts of the songs of spring and reminds autumn not to think about them. Instead, the speaker urges autumn to listen to her own season’s music. The mention of spring in the third stanza greatly contrasted to the deathly qualities of autumn since spring symbolizes life and its renewal. At this time, the speaker of the poem encourages autumn to listen around her surrounding “on the soft-dying day” and hear the “wailful choir of small gnats” and “full-grown lambs bleat”. These sounds represent the sad cries of animal while the day gently ends at dusk. Moreover, autumn is further encouraged to listen to the music created from the songs of cricket, whistle of the birds, and the twittering of swallows. In short, the music of nature, its living and dying sounds, blends harmoniously as the day and season draws into a close. The gentle passing of autumn is pleasant experience if one’s senses are open to the sights and sounds of nature: seeing beauty in its cycle and taking comfort in still hearing sounds that continues the next season. All in all, what matters to the poet is the acceptance in all the facets of autumn — its lively harvests, its melancholy, and its gentle passing – all of which are emphasized in every stanza of the poem. Autumn, the season most revered by the poet, represents the point in our lives where our maturity is “ripe” enough to accept the inevitably of death. Maturity, the prime of life, is the key moment of existence when one finally comes to understand and appreciate the cyclical nature of existence.  For Keats, maturity is the great wisdom of autumn being represented in the poem. Indeed, a deeper exploration of this idea is revealed in every stanza where the speaker alludes to autumn as the key point of existence. The first stanza, where the poet revels about the richness and vitality found in his surrounding, represents that moment in our lives where we have accumulated enough experiences, knowledge, and wisdom over the years. Our maturity is likened to fruits that are filled with “ripeness to the core”. In other words, the ripeness in our personhood refers to maturity when we have already accepted the idea of death. Ripeness is the product of young age, the time when one is blessed and honed by the years. When ripe, fruits are ready to either be picked up or left rotten – a process similar to what all human beings will eventually have to face. Moving to the second stanza, the poet purposely gives form to autumn being a woman to help us understand about the gentle characters of a person who reaches the prime of his life. The second stanza is all about the ongoing harvest work in the area, where the woman can sometimes be seen sleeping on the field or sitting alone on the granary floors. She could not care less about the unfinished work in the fields and instead, she chose to relax and be at peace with herself. These activities of the woman represent our time to slow down, ponder, and reflect on the vastness of beauty around us. When a person matures, he will spend his time in contemplation, taking pleasure in seeing how life unfolds around him. Maturity sends a person into reverie about the past. Also, it makes us contemplate on remaining time left to exist. Middle age gives us the time to take comfort and revel in contentment about how we lived our life. The second stanza ended with an important scene where a woman patiently looks at every drop of fruit juices that comes out of the cider-press. This part of the poem indicates an intense desire to squeeze everything we can get out of life.  The woman regards every drop as an important product of existence. In this sense, one is drawn to think that certainly, there is an innate desire for everyone to continue on living. As a result, one can observe in the third stanza how the speaker puts the rhetorical question, “Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? (23)”, into autumn’s mouth. It is as if the poet already anticipated that she would have the impulse to look for the previous liveliness of spring. This line about spring signifies our innate desire to reminisce the vigor and vitality in our youth. However, the speaker reminds autumn to dismiss these thoughts and instead listen to its music. The sounds of creatures against the dying background of day represent an almost gentle depiction of our passing. For Keats, the course of our death is not at all sullen. Instead, it is described as “soft” and tender. As such, our gentle passing should be handled by a silent acceptance on the transience of life. The poem ended with the sounds of swallow at dusk and this image represents that life goes even after one’s departure from the world. Hearing these sounds near the passing of day signifies that the cycle of seasons will continue, just as life goes around for everyone. For Keats, autumn should highly be revered because it paves way to the gentle and scenic transition towards the lifeless winter – in the same way that our own maturity allows us to reflect and contemplate the splendor of life towards our passing. Read More