Discuss the way that Keats presents various features of the season in "Ode to Autumn".
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. 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'
In the introduction to the story (The Nightingale and the rose), the editors say:
THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSE "But the Tree cried to the Nightingale..." to the end of the story. In the introduction to the story, the editors say: "Wilde uses the form of the fairy story to reflect upon modern life and debate ideas." In what ways do you think this extract supports this view? Oscar Wilde's story, "The Nightingale and the Rose", takes on the familiar fairytale form, however Wilde also incorporates modern issues in his writing. He uses the basic structure of a fairy story to communicate these issues with the reader. In this extract we see the Nightingale pressing her breast against the thorn in an effort to create a red rose for the student. As she presses closer the rose grows deeper in colour, "louder and louder grew her song, for she sang of the birth of passion". The louder and more meaningful her song becomes, the deeper the crimson colour of the rose becomes. "And a delicate flush of pink came into the leaves of the rose, like the flush in the face of the bridegroom when he kisses the lips of the bride." Here Wilde uses a simile to describe the colour seen. This simile is carefully chosen to reflect upon modern life and fairytale imagery. This story uses familiar aspects of fairytales such as repetition and groups of three. "The Tree cried to the Nightingale to press close against the thorn. 'Press closer, little Nightingale,' cried the Tree, 'or
Comparing two ballads
Comparing two ballads A ballad is a story often set to song and here I am going to study in detail the make-up and difference between two very different ballads. For my first poem I chose 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci', (The Beautiful Woman Without Thanks) by John Keats. Comparing to this I chose W.H. Auden's: 'MissGee'. Out of the selection I picked these two poems because of how strongly they attracted my attention; Keats' because it was so romantic and full of beauty and Auden's because of the simplistic life and pathos evoked by this unsightly woman who wished so much to be beautiful, loved or just noticed. They compare well using just this factor of beauty but I shall delve into them more to find other contrasts. Wyston Hugh Auden was born in York, England in 1907. He moved to Birmingham where he spent his childhood. In 1928 Auden published his first book of verse and his collection of 'Poems' that established him as an up and coming leader of literature. In 1939 he moved to the U.S.A. where he met his wife. Generally he is considered as the greatest poet of the twentieth century. He died in Vienna in 1973. The ballad 'Miss Gee' was the most modern poem of our selection and it stood out vividly because it was so shocking and had such a stale humor and irony to it. Irony, because she had wanted to be noticed her whole life and dead she was but for the wrong reasons.
Critical Essay on
24/12/03 Critical Essay Kughan Malairaj "Ode to Autumn" by John Keats This poem that I am going to be focusing on is titled "Ode to Autumn", written by John Keats. This poem shows an aspect of the natural world and I am going to prove in detail how the techniques used by the poet made me think more deeply about the subject. The title of this poem is "Ode to Autumn". This is basically what the poem is about. The poem focuses on autumn, one of the four seasons. I am going to be focusing on two techniques used by the poet which are mood and word choice. Autumn is known to us as a season heading into the cold winter. However, the poet expresses Autumn as a fun-filling and a season with numerous activities. The poem was written around two hundred years ago and this might be why their autumn might be different from ours. In the poem, Autumn is expressed as a warm and nice season. There are three stanzas in this poem, each focusing on a different insight to autumn. The poet uses good word choice in the first stanza to bring forward the view of autumn. The first stanza shows everything coming to life and maturity. Starting with the first line, "Seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness!" This expression shows a sign of joyfulness and the word choice 'mists and mellow' is a use of alliteration which conveys a soft and gentle sound. There is also a plentiful image created by
The Writing of "Ode to a Nightingale".
The Writing of "Ode to a Nightingale" Charles Brown, a friend with whom Keats was living when he composed this poem, wrote, In the spring of 1819 a nightingale had built her nest near my house. Keats felt a tranquil and continual joy in her song; and one morning he took his chair from the breakfast table to the grass-plot under a plum-tree, where he sat for two or three hours. When he came into the house, I perceived he had some scraps of paper in his hand, and these he was quietly thrusting behind the books. On inquiry, I found those scraps, four or five in number, contained his poetic feeling on the song of our nightingale. Analysis: "Ode to a Nightingale" A major concern in "Ode to a Nightingale" is Keats's perception of the conflicted nature of human life, i.e., the interconnection or mixture of pain/joy, intensity of feeling/numbness of feeling, life/death, mortal/immortal, the actual/the ideal, and separation/connection. In this ode, Keats focuses on immediate, concrete sensations and emotions, from which the reader can draw a conclusion or abstraction. Does the experience which Keats describes change the dreamer? As reader, you must follow the dreamer's development or his lack of development from his initial response to the nightingale to his final statement about the experience. Stanza I. The poet falls into a reverie while listening to an actual nightingale
The poems I have chosen to study are 'Abbey Tomb' by Patricia Beer, 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' by T.S. Elliot and 'To Autumn' by John Keats.
'By using the first or second person - a poet creates a sense of direct dialogue with the reader.' What is your response to this view? By the use of the first or second person a poet can establish a connection between the character and the reader because the poet can address the reader directly. The poems I have chosen to study are 'Abbey Tomb' by Patricia Beer, 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' by T.S. Elliot and 'To Autumn' by John Keats. Beer's use of the first person in 'Abbey Tomb' creates the sense that the monk is confiding in the reader. In addition the link between reader and the Beer's character is enhanced because the monk is talking through time, which makes the reader feel involved because the monk is intrusting the reader with his grievance that has lasted beyond the grave. 'I told them not to ring the bells...their tombs look just as right as mine,' it could be seen here that the monk is trying to get the final word to the reader as time has worn away the truth and there is no one alive who knows he was right. This also implies his frustration that the other monks did not listen to him because his complain is made directly to the reader. With the use of the first person Beer is able to create what resembles a first hand account of the incident, which is being retold to the reader. 'We stood still...staring at the door,' the monks were waiting for the
Commentary: Ode to a nightingale by john keats
COMMENTARY: ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE BY JOHN KEATS The "Ode to a nightingale" by John Keats is a poem that is multi-layered and can have many meanings shown through the rich imagery of the poem. The poems illustrates a journey taken through imagination, the poet longs for release and escape and chooses his imagination to get there it goes from harsh reality of the real world to the ideal, perfect world. The natural world is used in the poem to express some of the truths and perceptions of the human mind, such as the change in human nature and the short lives of humans compared to the everlasting song of the nightingale. The contrasts portrayed in the poem, the illusion vs. reality is shown through juxtaposition of factors in the real and ideal world. These are the mixture of pain and joy, life and death, morality and immortality these are vital in the poem because they depict the difference between the perfect world created with the nightingale where the poet is able to escape all the negativity and problems in the real world and thus emphasize the poets feelings about human existence and the problems in real life. The reality of life is explored through the imagery shown in the first three stanzas of the poem. There is emphasis on the "strength of inner feelings" (English poetry of the Romantic period; pg 364) and this underpins how life is described as "full of sorrow" as life
John Keats-Ode To Autumn
John Keats-Ode To Autumn This is the last poem Keats wrote and is an ode, which is a lyric poem addressed to a person or thing and deals with one main idea. The romantic poets like Wordsworth, Shelley and Keats used this form of poem a lot. The Romantics wrote of many things in their poems and believed their emotions and their imagination were very important. In this poem the main subject is autumn which Keats relates to love, death and immortality (Romantics were interested in these areas). He describes Autumn's rich images and uses them as symbols for his own feelings. Keats uses a mature language to convey a 'Romantics' view of Autumn and nature. In the first stanza we are straight away led into the idea of something which is warm, pleasant, smooth and full of richness - autumn.. The word autumn is never used except in the title so we only know it's autumn because of the way Keats paints us a picture with words. With words like "mellow" and "fruitfulness" being used. Keats then talks of the sun and how it ripens everything in a completed and full way, "And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core.." This shows how Keats believes autumn begins and summer ends, with the growth and ripeness of fruit and plants. He uses detailed, complex and innovative language to describe a maturing and full Autumn. For example, when talking about the ripening fruit of autumn
Ode on a grecian urn by John Keats - review
ODE ON A GRECIAN URN John Keats Keats was an important figure in early 19th century poetry and arguably wrote some of the most beautiful and moving poetry in the English language, despite dying at a very young age. Many of Keats' themes and concerns are quintessentially Romantic. Keats seems troubled by a quest for beauty and perfection and this is especially evident in his odes. These lyric poems were written between March and September 1819 and Keats died in 1821. In Ode On A Grecian Urn he has turned to art (unlike in In Ode To A Nightingale, Keats turned to the song of a bird in his quest for perfection.) Instead of identifying with the fluid expressiveness of music the speaker attempts to engage with the static immobility of sculpture. This is done by examining the pictures on the urn and by the speaker describing them and interpreting their meaning. Finding a paradox in nearly all that he finds, it is as if Keats examines both sides of every coin using the urn as a base of perfection and the mortal desires of man and the passage of time on nature as the flip side. The choice of an urn as the subject is in itself interesting, a container designed to keep things safe from decay. However, by keeping something safe from harm by enclosing it, you also prevent it from being released. This symbolic struggle is a theme repeated throughout the poem. The urn's perfection is
How is Keats' Romanticism Revealed in the Poems 'To Autumn' and 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci'?
How is Keats' Romanticism Revealed in the Poems 'To Autumn' and 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci'? Keats was born in 1795. This is significant to his style of writing for one main reason. It was toward the end of 'romantic' era and the dawn of the industrial revolution. The ideal romanticism was that you should appreciate the true beauty of nature and recognize your right to a life, the right to be your own person. Romanticism was very relevant to Keats because this was the time in which the industrial revolution was happening and Britain was losing its natural heritage, he wanted to tell people about the beauty of nature through his writing so that all not all of nature is lost, it can remain within poems. The issue of liberty was also a main factor within the romantic style of writing because many people were working for very little money, for very long hours, being governed by the owners of factories and other industrial outputs. Keats spent much of his life around people who had tuberculosis so he learnt to respect nature in its harshest form: a disease. Keats mother died from tuberculosis when he was very young. He also nursed his brother whilst he had tuberculosis so it was inevitable that he would catch the disease. When Keats was in one of the stages of tuberculosis he wrote the poem 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' which may have been a metaphorical outlet for his writing.c 'La