"Thou", "Dost", "Thy", "O'erbrimm'd" and "Poppies"(poppys spelt differently now) in this poem the Language and spelling are different from the modern era.
He describes Autumn as the "season of mists and mellow fruitfulness" "close bosom-friend of the maturing sun" Maturing means fading. It says this because in the Autumn or "To Autumn"
the goes down quicker in the evening and the weather gets dimmer, so the sun matures (fades) and so does the weather.
"Later flowers for the bees" this meaning the flower that blooms in the early autumn/ late summer are being swarmed by bees that are collecting honey.
"Where are the songs of spring? Are, where are they? Think not of them,- thou hast thy music too" This meaning John Keats is comparing Autumn to Spring. He is saying that spring is nice and that is has been and gone but autumn has it's virtues too.(thou has thy music too).
"Full grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn" nowadays lambs are killed for food (eating) back then, not so many were killed.
The Fire of London
This poem was written by John Dryden. It is about the historical event. 'The fire of london'. He describes it well. "Night came, but without darkness or response" this means the nightime arrived but the usual darkness was eliminated by the light of the fire. "Where souls distracted when the trumpet blows" Back in the day they would blow a trumpet when it was bedtime for everyone but that night when it was blown souls/people were distracted by the fire.
"To a last lodging call their wand'ring friends" and "To look how near their own destruction tends" this means the people who have homes have an uneasy sleep and look/dream about how near their own death/ death of home actually came.
"Rune run" Dryden has included alliteration in this poem, Also another example is "Some Stir". He uses similies also, "as murder'd men" and "like herded beasts".
"And, while through burning lab'rinths they retire". It says back then London was a labyrinth ( spelling different also) Nowadays Londond is mostly signposted, it was not signposted very well in the past.
"While by the motion of the flames the ghess what streets are burning now.”
The word 'ghess' is now spelt 'guess' that is one difference. Also nowadays people would not have to guess what streets are burning as communication is so mainstream now. Now you can ask any of the emergency services which would be there and television would be a source of information.
"Grassie"- grassy, "Wand'ring"- wandering, "Gen'ral"- general, "Ruine" -ruin, "wonted"- wanted and "Lab-rinths"- labyrinths, these are all examples of the language that is used in the poem and the alternative we use today. The examples underlined are the words edited with an apostrophe. A single apostrophe is used in place of a single letter. Shakespeares method I call it, however that is another difference between today and back then.
La Belle Dame Sans Merci
John Keats wrote this poem. It is about a soldier who fell in love with a girl. It describes how they met and the appearance of the girl. "Full beautiful- a feary's child.” Faery's child means an angel. From lines 1-3, the poem is about the soldier being ill. "Alone and Palely loitering?” The next 4 lines involve the soldier looking miserable. The 5th line is the same as the 1st line. Line 19 says that the soldier thought the woman was in love with him- "she look'd at me as she did Love". They then ride off on a horse together "set her on my pacing steed.” “She said- I love thee true” this neans he thinks she loves him again. They then goto a cave (“Elfin grot”) where they make love and kiss. They then fall asleep. The atmosphere then changes and the soldier goes back to his miserable self like he was in the beginning of the poem. He then see’s “Pale kind and princes too.” The soldier finds out the woman had used others to. The others cried out “La belle Dame sans merci hath thee in thrall”, meaning, the beautiful woman had no heart, she had power and fooled them all by using the power. The end line (line 48) is the same as line 4. “And no birds sing”, “Dream’d”- dreamed, “manna”- manner, “Faery’s”- fairys, “wither’d”- withered, “woebegone”- miserbale. These are examples of the difference in language between today and back in the 17/18th centuries.
The differences between the 17/18th centuries and today are mostly the language, pucntuation and spelling. It has altered dramatically. In addition the way of life has certainly changed rapidly. Since then a lot of methods and the country have changed along with the people and style of poetry.