Discuss the way that Keats presents various features of the season in "Ode to Autumn".

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GCSE ENGLISH AND ENGLISH LITERATURE COURSEWORK

TASK: Discuss the way that Keats presents various features of the season in "Ode to Autumn".

The poem "Ode to Autumn", by John Keats was written in the early 19th century, during the romantic period. During this period poets mainly focussed on the appreciation of nature, and on the emotions. The title "Ode to Autumn" indicates that the poem is addressed to the season, Keats personifies it, and throughout the poem addresses autumn like a person. The poem is arranged into three stanzas; each with 11 lines, and each line has around 10 syllables. The poem also has a fairly regular rhyme scheme from stanza to stanza. I think this regularity is effective in the poem, as it has a very flowing feel, and this compliments it. "Ode to Autumn" is arranged into its three stanzas according to subject matter, with the first concentrating on the ripening of fruit during autumn, the second on the autumn harvests, and the third on the sounds of the season. The overall structure of the poem gives a feeling of autumn following on from summer in stanza one, and then autumn leading to winter in stanza three.
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The first stanza focuses on the ripening of fruit during autumn. In the first two lines Keats describes autumn in three ways; 'season of mists' because it is the time of year when it is beginning to get foggy, a season of 'mellow fruitfulness' as fruit is at its most plump, ripe and juicy in autumn, and finally as the 'close bosom friend of the maturing sun', because in autumn the sun becomes weaker, and the days shorter. The phrase 'close bosom-friend' implies that autumn and the sun are working very closely together to ripen the fruits. In ...

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