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John Keats, "To Autumn"
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Text on p. 1100 of the full Ninth Edition and p. 846 of the shorter Ninth Edition.
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Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimmed their clammy cells.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twinéd flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,
While barréd clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
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Reading Questions
1. As you read the poem, notice how the season of autumn progresses with each stanza. Also, note the underlying questions in each stanza of "how," "who," and finally "where." Do you see signs of progression in each stanza?
2. How would you describe the personification of Autumn? How does it change as the poem progresses?
3. What elements of the season of fall are not mentioned in the poem? Why do you think they are omitted?
4. What are your feelings when you finish the poem? Of peace? Conflict? Irony? In what ways does the poem evoke your own memories of the season of autumn?
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