To Autumn - Keats

Keats talks about Autumn, a season he believes does not get much attention, Keats reminds the reader that this season has as much appeal, beauty and ripeness as the Summer season - beauty is everywhere.

1819 - Most creative year / written after a nature walk, he had just found out he had TB - perhaps poem reflects either the decay he may have felt or the push to carry on and 'bloom' as nature does. Trying to find positivity and beauty even in times of illness and pain.

The structure lacks structured rythem, making it a free-verse poem - the first stanza holds some rythem ABABCDEDCFE, however by the second stanza the rhyme scheme becomes shattered DGDGHIJHIIJ,.

This fractured structure may be a reflection of the social and personal conflict he was suffering from. Instead of explicitly refercing it in his poem, the shattered structure conveys the underlying message of conflict of the season.

Also written in Iambic Pentametre. 

Keats personifies Autumn to bring the season further to life - "Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wing / with patient look." 

Also uses semantic field of nature and a passing of time - "fruit / ripeness / flowers / summer / poppies / apples / cottage-trees / later flowers / last ozzings hour by hour / soft dying day / brook." Reinforces the beauty of season.

Many double consonants - "fill all / swell / summer / brimmed / clammy cells / budding / ripeness / shells" - creates a soothing tone - Keats trying to console himself.

Use of long vowels - "oozings hour by hour" and "Drowsed" - mimic the drowsiness of the season - mellowness.

Pastoral imagery thorugh the descriptions of nature, reflects the beauty of the natural world - there is beauty in all season as they are nature. 

Rebirth imagery - "full grown lambs." 

Life and death imagery - "sinking as the light wind lives or dies;"