On the Grasshopper and the Cricket
In the sonnet, ‘On the Grasshopper and the Cricket’ by John Keats, the message of the poem is foregrounded in the very first line of the octave “ The poetry of earth is never dead” and “ the Poetry of earth is ceasing never”. John Keats very emphatically asserts that regardless of the fact whether it is the summers or the winters the poetry of Mother Nature will be omnipresent and will continue to add vitality to the environment. Furthermore, if we were to view the poem metaphorically, Keats is suggesting that although we easily recognize the beauty of life in youth, there is also plenty of beauty in old age.
The structure and arrangement of this poem is of immense importance to Keats in helping him get his message through. Following the iambic parameter, Keats poem is a Petrachan Sonnet which is evident through the familiar structure and fourteen-verse arrangement. The starting lines of both the octave and sestet are similar, that is; “The poetry of the earth is never dead.” And “The poetry of the earth is ceasing never.” Keats does this as he wants to reinforce what he is trying to say and it also acts as a divider between the octave and the sestet. Keats refers to nature as “the poetry of the earth” because nature just like poetry consists of different elements, tones and voices and can be perceived in different ways by the interpreter. The octave describes summer and the grasshopper while the sestet describes winter and the cricket. Keats uses a tone of admiration and softness in this poem and uses gentle and soft sounding word such as ‘ poetry’, ‘earth’, ‘birds’ , ‘voice’, ‘hedge’ and ‘luxury.’ These words make us murmur the poetry softly and carefully when spoken out loud. There are several examples of assonance through out the poem. To describe the summer, Keats uses words with an ‘o’ sound for example lone, stove, song and drowsiness and he uses words such as frost and wrought to describe the chilling sensation of winter. The shape of the poem also mimics the action of a falling leaf which again refers to the topic of natural beauty.
