Context

• John Keats was one of the most influential Romantic poets.
• He experienced a lot of death. Both his mother and father had died by the time he reached his teens.
• To Autumn was inspired by a real event- Keats walked alongside the river Itchen near Winchester on the 19th of September 1819
• Just a couple of months after writing the poem he suffered the first symptoms of tuberculosis, which was the same disease that killed his mother. This disease killed him at age 25
• And a letter to his friend written a couple days later, Keith described the impression the scene had made upon him and its influence on the composition of his poem