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John Keats, "To Autumn"

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The Ode and Its Poetic Context

"To Autumn" is part of a tradition of lyrical poems about autumn, and even draws some of its images from them. Look at some which we know Keats loved: Shakespeare's sonnets "That time of year" and "How like a winter," Milton's "Il Penseroso," Wordsworth's "Ode: Intimations of Immortality," Coleridge's "Frost at Midnight." The poem also speaks with other poems that Keats wrote, in particular, "When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be" and his great odes of spring, "Ode to Psyche," "Ode to a Nightingale," and "Ode on a Grecian Urn." Write a paper in which you look for parallels and contrasts between "To Autumn" and several of these poems.

The Ode and Its Historical and Biographical Context

At the time that Keats wrote this poem, Europe was still in turmoil from the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.  Keats gave up his medical career in 1816 to be a poet, but would soon be confronted both with sharp criticism of his poems and with his recognition of the first symptoms of tuberculosis, writing "When I Have Fears" in January 1818.  He nursed his brother, who was dying from tuberculosis (as had their mother) in autumn of 1818. In 1819 he wrote his greatest poetry and became engaged to Fanny Brawne that autumn, even as he soon realized that their relationship was doomed and that his health would prevent him from writing more poetry. Taking this information into account, re-read the poem to see whether it reflects these tragic conditions. Look also at another ode written during 1819,  such as the "Ode on Melancholy" or "Ode to a Nightingale." How do these comparisons and readings affect your understanding of "To Autumn"?

Criticism of the Poem

Once you have articulated your own interpretation of the poem, you are ready to compare it with the interpretations of other readers. Read the following articles and write a paper in which you compare your own reading with theirs.

Keats "To Autumn": An Exercise in Formal Criticism  by Johann M. Moser, retired professor of English, Saint Anselm College, New Hampshire.

Does Keats Resolve the Hiatus between Theory and Practice in His Poetry and Imagination?  by Kenneth Knapman.

John Keats: The Final Season in a Young Poet's Life and His Final Poem "To Autumn"; student essay by Lisa Dagorn, Cedar Crest College.

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