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Parisa Mostafavi

Prof. Bakhtiari

Literary Linguistics

Term Paper

6 August 2010

A stylistic Analysis of “To Autumn”(John Keats)

To Autumn

SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness!

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees, 5
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
1
Until they think warm days will never cease, 0
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
1
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; 5
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twinèd flowers;
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
2
Steady thy laden head across a brook; 0
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
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Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are

they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
2
While barrèd clouds bloom the soft-dying day, 5
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
3
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; 0
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

General Interpretation
The poem gives a descriptive account of the season Autumn.It renders the season as beautiful and unique.A
sad, melanchoholy,drowsy,heavy,yet beautiful image of Autumn is created through the use of stylistic
features:

Lexis
Most words are formal or archaic. There is not much repetition, which gives a wide variety to the vocabulary
of the poem. The words are cleverly chosen from 8 separate categories. This gives unity to the poem:

1.Labor and Fertility:

Fruitfulness/load/bless/fruit2/bend/fill/ripeness/swell/plump/budding/more2/o’er-brimm’d/bloom/clammy
cells

2.Vegetation:

Vines/cottage trees/apples/core/gourd/hazel shells/kernel

3.Pleasant:

Mellow/sweet/warm/maturing sun/flowers/soft

4.Creatures:

Bees/gnats/lambs/hedge-crickets/red-breast/swallows

5.Harvest:

Store/granary/winnowing/half-reaped/furrow/hook/spare/swath/stubble-plains/cider-press/gleaner
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6.Drowsy:

Laden head/careless/sound asleep/drowsed/fume of poppies/patient look/last oozings/hours by hours

7.Gloomy:

Wind/soft-dying/barred clouds/rosy hue/wailful/mourn/sallows/sinking/light wind/lives or dies/

8.Sounds:

Whistle/music/song/twitter/bleat/choir

Grammar
The second and third stanzas each start with a question which is addressed to Autumn:

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? (stanza 1)

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? (stanza 2)

This contributes to the unity of the poem beside creating 2 important notices.

As regaring Definiteness and Generics,we should say that although there are examples of generics in the
poem:

Mists/apples/fruit/flowers/budding/poppies/hours/barred clouds/gathering swallows

But the majority of nouns are definite:

The maturing sun/the vines/the thatch-eves/the moss’d cottage-trees/the core/the gourd/the hazel shells/the
bees/the winnowing wind/the next swath/the last oozings/the songs/the sof-dying day/the stubble-plains/the
small gnats/the light wind/the red-breast/the skies

The generics used attribute the description to the season Autumn,while the definite nouns give a description
of the specific splendid Autumn in the poet’s mind.

The Tense used is the present tense:

Present simple verbs:

Think/cease/seeks/may find//spares/dost
keep/watchest/are/hast/bloom/touch/mourn/lives/dies/bleat/sing/whistles/twitter

Or present perfect verbs:

Hath not seen/has o’er-brimm’d

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But there are also many phrases used in the poem:

Present participle phrases:

Conspiring/sitting/sinking

Past participle phrases:

Drowsed/borne

And several infinitive phrases.The whole first stanza is created by infinitive phrases;no complete sentence is
to be found:

To load and bless/to bend and fill/to swell and plump/to set

To categorize these,we can say that the dominant grammatical structures are:

Infinitive phrase in stanza 1,(fast-paced,exiting imagery)

Past participle phrase in stanza 2,(slow-paced,drowsy,harvest imagery)

And present simple in stanza 3.(active,musical imagery)

These 3 structures contribute to the 3 images developed in the stanzas.

There are also some archaic grammatical structures:

Think not/watchest

Pronouns in this poem are all devices of personification:

“him” for “the maturing sun”

“they” and “their” for “the bees”

“thou” “thee” and “thy” for “Autumn”

Deviations
Semantic Deviation

The many personifications and metaphors in this poem,all deviate semantically:

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; 2

Conspiring with him how to load and bless 3

 With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; 4

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Until they think warm days will never cease, 10

For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells. 11

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? 12

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, 14

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; 15

 Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep, 16

 Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook 17

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep 19

 Steady thy laden head across a brook; 20

Or by a cyder-press, with patient look, 21

Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours. 22

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,— 24

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, 25

And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue; 26

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn 27

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; 29

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft 31

The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; 32

Grammatical Deviation

The main deviation in grammar is the use of Re-orderings and Inversions in order to create a poetic
language,and also to put more emphasis on the words which play more important roles in the imagery:

    To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees, 5

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; 6

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? 12

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    Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn 27

    And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; 30

Lexical Deviation

The main lexical deviation is the use of archaic words to create a splendid glorified atmosphere:

Hath/thee/thou/thy/oft

There is also an example of Functional Inversion,where the adjective “loud”is used as an adverb:

lambs loud bleat 30

Graphological Deviation

A very importand deviation of such is the use of hyphen__ in stanza 3,which successfully creates a sense of
surprise,and separates the first part of the poem from the second,which is the climax as well as the settlement
of the ode:

        Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,— 24

Sounds
Alliteration runs through the whole poem:

/m/s/z/ SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness, 1

/m/s/z/        Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; 2

/r/ With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; 4

/f/ And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; 6

/s/ With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, 8

/s/z/ð/        For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells. 11

/s/ð/θ/ Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? 12

/s/        Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find 13

/w/ Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; 15

/s/    Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep, 16

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/s/z/ Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers: 18

/s/z/ Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? 23

/θ/ð/s/z/        Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,— 24

/b/d/    While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, 25

 /l/           Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; 29

/l/b/    And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; 30

/s/ Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft 31

/r/        The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; 32

/s/z/            And gathering swallows twitter in the skies. 33

Assonance can be found in:

Reaped/asleep (line 16)

Sinking/wind/lives (line 29)

Red/breast (line 32)

And Rhyme in:

Swell/hazel/shell (line 7)

The strong Sound Symbolism in this poem is created through the use of Vowel Length:

In stanza 1 short vowels are used to show the early stage of Autumn,which is somehow a
joyful,happy,exciting late Summer:

/I/ mists/with/him/fill/still/think/will/brim/cottage/maturing/conspiring/budding/until

/ə/ season/fruitfulness/bosom/hazel/kernel/later/flowers/never/summer/over/apples/ripeness/has

/e/ mellow/friend/bless/bend/swell/shells/they/never/cells

/υ/ fruitfulness/bosom/maturing

/Λ/ sun/run/plump/budding/until/summer
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On the other hand,longer vowels are used in the next 2 stanzas,especially stanza 2,which shows Autumn in
its 2nd and typical phase,when Nature goes through a long,sad,slow and gloomy drowsiness,as if exhausted
by the fast-paced Summer:

/i:/ seen/seek/reaped/asleep/gleaner/keep/bleat

/ő/ store/floor/mourn/bourn/small/abroad/borne

/α:/ poppies/swath/aloft/croft/across/songs/are/barred/gardens/swallows/soft

/ǽ/ half/last/hast/gnats/sallows/lambs/gathering/granary

/З:/ careless/hair/spares

/ϋ/ brook/oozings/hue/bloom

Meter
The dominant meter in this poem is iambic pentameter,but the Rhythmic Deviation contributes to the
variation of the poem,and keeps it from becoming monotonous.The Rhythmic Deviation is developed by the
use of Reversed Feet:

Season of (line 1)

Close bosom (line 2)

Of the maturing (line 2)

Conspiring with (line 3)

Apples the moss’d cottage (line 5)

All fruit (line 6)

To the core (line 6)

With a sweet kernel (line 8)

Set budding (line 8)

Still more (line 9)

Think warm days (line 10)

Summer has (line 11)

Who hath not seen (line 12)

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Sometimes whoever (line 13)

Thee sitting (line 14)

Careless on a (line 14)

Soft-lifted by (line 15)

on a half-reaped furrow (line 16)

Drows’d with the (line 17)

Next swath (line 18)

Steady thy (line 20)

by a (line 21)

Watchest the (line 22)

Where are the (line 23)

Think not (line 24)

Barred clouds (line 25)

in a (line 27)

Full- grown lambs loud bleat ( line 30)

Hedge-crickets (line 31)

Red-breast (line 32)

Whistles from a (line 32)

Twitter in the (line 33)

And finally,the Poetic Orthography device used is Elision,in order to fit the number of syllables in some
lines:

Moss’d/o’er-brimm’d/drows’d

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