To Autumn

• The poem 'To Autumn' was written by John Keats


  1819
• The poem 'To Autumn'

  • Explores many ideas about nature
  • Personifies the season of autumn as an actual person with feelings, who can speak and is a physical being
• Keats personifies autumn


  It is easier for the audience to understand how he personally feels about it
• Autumn is personified as

  An intelligent and wise being that is 'conspiring'
• The poem 'To Autumn'

  • Portrays autumn as a female goddess
  • The reader becomes the second person and Keats is talking directly to autumn
• Evidence of autumn as a female goddess


  • 'Thy hair soft lifted'
  • Keats speaks kindly of her
• The poem 'To Autumn'

  • Suggests autumn is not just something we can see, but also something we can feel
  • Uses a lot of auditory imagery and a lexical field of words related to nature and animals
• 'To Autumn'

  Can be described as John Keats' personal declaration of love in the form of a love letter to the season
• 'To Autumn'

  • Is very structured and formal, with 3 stanzas of 11 lines each and a rhyme scheme of A, B, A, B
  • Depicts a historic, romanticised view of autumn when people were more in touch with nature
• The use of sibilance and caesura


  Creates a soft, mellow mood and atmosphere for the poem
• The use of question marks


  Leaves time for the reader to pause and think about what Keats is asking 'Autumn'
• Keats refers to the season of autumn as a female goddess that takes on different roles such as a farmer and a singer, personifying autumn with different characteristics and traits</b>