Poetic Technique in John Keats’s ‘To Autumn’
John Keats’ ‘To Autumn’ is a masterful poem, celebrated for its immersive quality and timeless nature. Written in Winchester during a period of illness, Keats’ poetic craftsmanship engages the reader with explorations of life and death that plagued the poet’s mind in 1819. His deteriorating physical state produced a profound understanding of mortality and the transient nature of life, alongside a further appreciation for nature, as seen in his address to the season in ‘To Autumn’. Such ideas are explored within the poem through Keats’ skilful use of poetic techniques – specifically structure, form, and sensory language. These elements aid in creating an emotional connection with the reader, as Keats creates a flawless, unified poem that resonates and impacts through such technical perfection. Likewise, his poetic rhetoric works to persuade and compel a response from the reader concerning the beauty of autumn, achieved through personification and feminine imagery, his use of apostrophe, and the recurrent idea of negative capability. These elements work together to create a deeply personal poem, inspired by Keats’ struggles at the time. However, some have made the case that its strength lies in the fact that it is impersonal; a universal poem, removed from subjective emotions and focusing only on the season and not a particular speaker. Such ambiguity is a result of Keats’ skill as a poet. In perfecting the use of poetic techniques and rhetoric in ‘To Autumn’, he makes a poem interconnected with and inspired by his own experiences, feel removed and objective, allowing for themes of mortality, excess and abundance, and renewal to receive greater exploration.
Keats employs the ode form; a celebration of, or address to, a particular figure that praises or affirms a subject. The elevated style and lyrical quality of the ode uplifts autumn to a level of great significance, emphasising its importance to the speaker and praising it above all other seasons. The ode allows for continuous expression of emotion through beautiful lyricism, as the poem also holds a musical rhythm to it, emphasising how poetry ‘is closely related to the term of lyric’ (Marlin Steffi Marpaung and Rahmadhan 1). This can be seen in Keats’ use of enjambment, which aids the seamless flow. The poem opens with: ‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, / Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun’ (lines 1-2). A sense of motion is created with no hesitancy, and autumn’s tranquil, ripe, and rich character is established. Patrick Swinden says of the poem, ‘It has a simplicity of development, a quality of unfolding, that makes its movement seem inevitable; almost as if nobody could be expected to write about autumn in any other way’ (57). This method of passing the time, as the movement takes autumn from its beginning to end, is further noted by Swindon: ‘each of the three stanzas of the poem seems to be describing a different phase in the progress of the season’ (57). To further emphasise the steady flow, Keats uses a rhyming couplet in the penultimate lines of every stanza, before introducing an additional line; abnormal for an ode, which typically contains ten lines within each stanza. Through this, Keats emphasises the idea of abundance – just as the bees find that ‘summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells’ in the final line, so too the poem bursts with excess and overflows on the page (11). It becomes imbalanced, and structurally asymmetrical for an ode, allowing attention to be drawn to the subject of autumn and its rich portrayal – rendering the subjectivity of the speaker irrelevant. Autumn speaks for itself; Keats elevates the season’s importance by making it the sole subject of the ode, and masks his own personal experiences that influenced the poem through an impersonal presentation enhanced by the masterful use of enjambment and rhyming couplets.
Keats also demonstrates a clear expertise in stylistic language, which brings his poem to life with vivid imagery. The first stanza lists the consequences of autumn’s excess on nature: ‘To bend’, ‘And fill’, ‘To swell’, ‘and plump’ (lines 5-7). These verbs add a weight to autumn, which in its plenitude, makes nature buckle with ripeness. Wolfgang G. Müller writes of the first stanza, ‘[t]he gently flowing syntax, which is dominated by semicolons and commas, is iconic’ (570). His substantial punctuation complements the vivid language, creating a rhythmic and progressive reading experience. The long vowels in the opening line – ‘season’, ‘fruitfulness’ – add to the relaxed, rich, and slow-paced atmosphere that autumn’s abundance creates (1). The sibilance in the first couplet, ‘And still more, later flowers for the bees, / Until they think warm days will never cease’, create a sensory experience, evoking softness and smoothness in a subtly sinister line (9-10). Such lyrical language conceals the darker aspect of autumn, which is a consequence of the season’s abundance. By the end of the poem, the speaker witnesses ‘the soft-dying day’ as the final burst of colour in a sunset, alongside the ‘full-grown lambs’ who have now reached maturity (25, 30). Nicholas Roe notes the idea of acceptance in the third stanza, believing it to have been ‘achieved through contemplation of natural abundance that was laden with intense social and ideological consequence at the season of the poem’s composition’ (262). The civil unrest created by the French Revolution, along with the rise of the Industrial Revolution may have influenced Keats to take from his personal experiences and historical context, and adapt them to the page with an objective lens visualised through the journey of the speaker. However, whilst the speaker certainly denotes an air of acceptance throughout the poem, the questions that open stanza three suggest confusion and doubt: ‘Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they?’ (23). Keats’ use of ubi sunt illustrates the speaker’s awareness of the mortality of the seasons, and emerging grief as he laments the passing of spring. The abundance of autumn reaches its peak in the final stanza, and Keats’ poem becomes less ambiguous as it is made clear that winter has arrived – ‘the wind lives or dies’ and ‘swallows twitter in the skies’ (29, 33). Whether the narrator accepts such finality becomes irrelevant; through sinister language and images, autumn’s abundance withers and the coming of winter is imminent.
Keats uses poetic rhetoric through his apostrophe in ‘To Autumn’, which directly addresses the season. This furthers the expression of admiration that the ode form also brings, and elevates its significance. Autumn is personified in stanza two through the pronouns in the line, ‘Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?’ (line 12). The second stanza explores autumn’s connection with the land, and the sense of entitlement that follows such abundance. Autumn ‘sits careless on a granary floor’ or ‘sound asleep’ as nature surrounds her (14, 17). This suggests either fatigue from hard work to create such ripeness and life in the pastoral setting, or a negligence that comes with wealth and abundance. Just as the bees ‘think warm days will never cease’, perhaps autumn too is careless concerning the progression of time (10). Keats feminises autumn, presenting her as a nurturing and fertile motherly figure, with ‘soft-lifted’ hair that creates a welcoming, comfortable image (15). Heidi Thomson notes that ‘Keats was attuned to female associations with the landscape’ (140). The nurturing nature of autumn is also merciful as her ‘hook / Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers’ (17-18). However, this emphasis on the scythe creates a sense of an impending downfall, as autumn embodies death itself. Despite the looming presence of decay, Keats provides autumn with power over life, and glorifies her achievements. This may portray the image of a deity, with control over life or death, as Roe explains, ‘Keats’s personification of autumn has numerous mythical referents, the most notable of these being the goddess Ceres’ (263). This aligns the poem within traditional mythology, presenting autumn as a goddess of fertility and aesthetic beauty. However, Müller disbelieves in this interpretation of the season as a particular goddess, instead stating, ‘[t]he question of the sex of the figure remains undecided. The hair being “softlifted by the winnowing wind” (15) may suggest a female, the contact with details of agricultural work may suggest a male’ (571). This presents autumn as a figure closer to humankind through agricultural labour, as illustrated by the merciful hook, which would be used to harvest grain. This ambiguous portrayal of autumn’s character further emphasises Keats’ use of poetic rhetoric; whether a goddess or human, male or female, autumn’s beauty, wealth, and richness only adds to the doubt and sense of death that can be felt as ripeness sits on the verge of decay.
Keats’ objective portrayal of autumn is achieved through negative capability, which culminates in the final stanza. Swinden views the poem as impersonal and unconcerned with Keats’ own condition, feeling that autumn ‘is very much out there, an objective fact that is being recorded by the poet, rather than a metaphorical substitute for a cry of sadness at the pain of living and the mortality of man’ (58). Roe concurs, noting the impersonality ‘as definitive of the poem’s “perfection”’ (252). Keats’ own mortality was certainly a present influence, however, his poem is perfected by the objective focus on the season of autumn and lack of a personal narrative voice; instead, expressing emotions through meticulous poetic techniques. Uttra Natarajan notes the authenticity of Keats’ poetic voice as seen by contemporary critics, which expresses ‘an unselfconscious, or, in their term, unmisgiving poet, a poet more or less free of conscious artistry and the constraints of decorum’ (285). Keats’ unselfconscious stance on topics considered taboo conveys a comprehensive understanding of the human experience within the poem. This authenticity also saw him employ the idea of negative capability in his work, in which ‘man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason’ (Roe 231). In the final stanza, as autumn ultimately concludes, the narrative voice does not question the transient nature of life, nor complain of the injustice of the passage of time. Instead, Keats presents a pleasant image and array of sounds that typically connote warmth, comfort and life, but hold an ominous undertone. Sound is present once more, but it is a ‘wailful choir’ of gnats, who now ‘mourn’ (line 27). By adding an additional line to the ode, Keats avoids the cheerful image as ‘the hedge-crickets sing’ and ‘The red-breast whistles’, which typically convey joy, as the closing image (31-32). Yet, such harmony is not as it seems: the robin sings at night, symbolising the coming of winter and darkness, and the ‘full-grown lambs loud bleat’ in what appears to be a cry for help, perhaps as maturity arrives and the fear of death emerges (30). The final couplet’s short, slow words – ‘soft’, ‘croft’ – convey a further sense of acceptance of fate (31-32). This creates a poignant final line: ‘gathering swallows twitter in the skies’ (33). The cheerfulness is an illusion; swallows have taken to the skies to migrate south as autumn officially transitions into winter. Keats’ emphasis on the skies as the final line creates an image of the cosmos, adding to the grandeur of autumn. The poem embraces its uncertainty; the final stanza contains elements of both life and death, and is open to interpretation in many aspects. Keats’ poetic rhetoric adds layers of meaning to the poem, which allows it to resonate in multiple areas whilst also providing an objective perspective on the beauty and consequences of autumn.
Keats masterfully utilises poetic techniques and rhetoric to convey ideas of mortality, abundance, and the transience of life within ‘To Autumn’. The objective presentation of the season gives it a timeless nature, and allows for emotional resonance with the reader. Through skilful use of structure, form, language, personification, and negative capability, Keats elevates autumn above all other seasons, whilst also exploring ideas of decay and excess. The poet allows autumn’s beauty to shine above all else, whilst simultaneously providing an ominous reflection on the transitory nature of life.
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Works cited
Keats, John. ‘To Autumn.’ Complete Poems. Alma Classics, 2023, p.318.
Marpaung, Marlin Steffi, and Rahmadhan. ‘Rhyme of Joyful Feeling in “To Autumn” By John Keats.’ Acuity (Universitas Advent Indonesia), vol. 6, no. 1. LPPM Universitas Advent Indonesia, 2021, pp.63-79.
Müller, Wolfgang, G., ‘John Keats, The Odes (1819).’ Handbook of British Romanticism, edited by Ralf Haekel. De Gruyter, 2017, pp.556-574.
Natarajan, Uttara. The Romantic Poets: A Guide to Criticism. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2007.
Roe, Nicholas. John Keats and the Culture of Dissent. Clarendon, 1997.
Swinden, Patrick. ‘John Keats: “To Autumn.”’ The Critical Quarterly, vol. 20, no. 4, 1978, pp. 57–60.
Thomson, Heidi. ‘Keats’ Muses “In the Midst of Meg Merrilies’ Country”: Meg, Mnemosyne, Moneta and Autumn.’ Keats’s Places, edited by Richard Marggraf Turley. Springer International Publishing, 2018, pp.135-156.
