Introduction
It used to be composed by English poet John Keats. He majored on romantic poetry and he lived in between the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Composed on the nineteenth of September in the year 1819, it used to be one poem in John Keats's series of poetry called Keats's "1819 odes". Other poems in the sequence include Lamia and The Eve of St. Agnes. The "To Autumn" is the last composition in the collection and it was published in the 12 months 1820. In the year 1819, John Keats had a lot of personal troubles to attend to that kept him from doing a lot of his work as far as composition is concerned. However, towards the end of the year, he came up with this masterpiece that some consider the best among his works. He was inspired by a walk he had one evening during autumn at a place near Winchester, Hampshire, in the United Kingdom. The poem may have been his best work of art, but it was also his last piece. It marked the end of his poetic career, since he needed better sustenance than he could find working as a poet. He died a year after the publication and was buried in Rome.
The Progression of Life through Autumn
The poem is comprised of three stanzas with eleven lines each. It depicts progression of life through the autumn season. It shows crops in full maturity, ripe, hanging with fruit and seeds and ready for harvesting. It also describes the harvesting process, and the different ways that crops are harvested and processed. He even personifies autumn as a goddess, watching the beauty of the season of bounty in all its glory. The poem finally describes the transition of seasons. From autumn and waiting for winter (Keats, 5).
Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The poem has rhyme scheme in its structure; however, it does not give a definite pattern. Each stanza, according to rhyme scheme characterization, is divided into two parts. The first part comprises of the first four lines of the stanzas, and they take an ABAB pattern. The second part comprises of seven lines and they take a CDEDCCE in the first stanza, while the second and third stanzas take the CDECDDE pattern (Keats, 5). In all the stanzas though, the first line rhymes with the third, while the second line rhymes with the fourth.
Literary Devices
The poet makes use of literal devices in to bring out the theme. For instance, imagery is employed in the first stanza. The poet talks about "thatch-eyed", "mossed cottage trees", "plump the hazel shells", "flowers for the bees", etc. These are visual imagery, and the writer uses it to create a vivid description. John Keats uses imagery to describe vividly the delights to be found in autumn as depicted in the poem. He is credited, as in other works of his, with bringing this poem to life.
Keats also uses personification to great effect. In the second stanza, he brings out the season of autumn as a goddess or a woman/person. He describes how she "sitting carelessly on a granary floor", "thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind". It helps to bring the poem to life, giving some of the characters life and fulfillment. He also says that both summer and autumn conspire, and "for summer has o'er brimmed their clammy cells" to bring out the transitions of seasons from summer to autumn.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be agreed that the use of the above use of literal devices and other poetic devices bring out the richness in one of the great poems in the English language. John Keats modifies the established structure of odes that is from ten to eleven lines. He also uses other styles like incomplete sentences and words, onomatopoeia and assonance to bring to effectiveness styles like rhyme, suspense and the beauty of the poem. It's truly worth its salt.
Work Cited
Keats, John, et al. The Poetical Works and Other Writings of John Keats. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1938.
