To Autumn (John Keats)

• Opening line- 'seasons of mist and mellow fruitfulness'- autumn is a season of change but it is a calm season
• 'Thee sitting careless on a granary floor'- personification, thoughtful season in the change it brings
• 'thou watchest oozings'- addresses autumn directly, autumn 'behaves' as if it has all the time in the world, even though time is passing by
• 'swell', 'plump', 'and still more', 'overbrimmed'- abundance of food autumn brings, idea of excess and plenty
• 'Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?'- autumn is seen everywhere
• 'Where are the songs of Spring?'- spring has been forgotten, autumn in powerful
• 'soft-dying day', 'wailful...mourn', 'lives or dies'- autumn is dying and Keats' own life is coming to an end
• Structure:

  First stanza- celebration and suggests autumn begins in rich and calm way

  Second stanza- Keats speaks directly to autumn and makes suggestion autumn is in no rush to move on

  Final stanza- change, autumn to winter, Keats recognises this and accepts he can't control it
• Themes and Links:

  Passing of time (Afternoons, Death of Naturalist, Grief)

  Natural world (Prelude, Death of Naturalist)

  Celebration of autumn, life and joy