To Autumn VS As Imperceptibly As Grief

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To Autumn VS As Imperceptibly As Grief

Similarities

  • Portrayal of autumn: Dickinson speaks about how 'the summer lapsed away' and the whole poem compares the unnoticeable transition of summer into autumn with grief. Keats also uses autumn and describes in depth the stages of the season
  • Impending doom of winter: typically winter symbolises death and decay in literature, and Keats uses many words in the semantic field of death in his third stanza to show this inevitable change. Dickinson also shows how the transition of seasons from summer to winter is negative - 'as twilight long begun' (refers to the longer nights, and for someone with a depressive personality this would mean more time to reflect and be alone
  • Personification of nature: Keats addresses autumn directly - 'thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind' - and Dickinson says 'Nature spending with herself Sequestered Afternoon'. Both speakers give nature or the season female qualities - Keats' reference to the 'hair soft-lifted' and Dickinson's female pronoun

Differences

  • Context: although both Dickinson and Keats lived during the 1800s, Dickinson became a recluse and was known as an eccentric, whereas Keats was an English Romantic poet who died early in his life, suffering from poor health problems
  • Structure: 'To Autumn' is in the form of an ode (slightly lyrical poem which is dedicated to something to usually show admiration) and Keats uses three stanzas to separate the stages of the season. Dickinson has much less order, with random dashes which reflect the idea that the poem is perhaps one of her drafts that she did at night in silence, or it is a stream of consciousness
  • Positivity: despite the negativity at the end of To Autumn, Keats uses strong language with positive connotations at the beginning to praise the season - 'season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!' In contrast, much of As Imperceptibly As Grief is negative - 'lapsed', 'perfidy', 'foreign', 'harrowing', 'that would be gone'.
  • Winter means different things: for Dickinson, winter means longer nights and so more time alone to reflect, whereas for Keats, winter means death - he was always aware of his poor health and mortality

Overall comparison

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