ENG - form 5^ - text analysis

John Keats (1795-1821)
To Autumn (1819)
I
Season of mists1 and mellow2 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 3 run
To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd4, and plump5 the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel6; to set budding7 more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimmed8 their clammy9 cells.
II
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store10?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad11 may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing12 wind;
Or on a half-reaped furrow13 sound asleep;
Drowsed14 with the fume of poppies, while thy hook15
Spares the next swath16 and all its twinèd flowers;
And sometimes like a gleaner17 thou dost keep
Steady thy laden18 head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings19 hours by hours.
III
Where are the songs of Springs? Aye, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,
While barred20 clouds bloom21 the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains22 with rosy hue23;
Then in a wailful24 choir the small gnats25 mourn
Among the river sallows26, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat27 from hilly bourn28;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble 29 soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft30,
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
1. mists: light fogs
(nebbioline).
2. mellow: ripe (matura).
3. thatch-eaves: overhanging
lower edge of roofcovering
of straw (bordi
del tetto di paglia).
4. gourd: large, fleshy fruit of
climbing plant (zucca).
5. plump: make ripe
(riempire).
6. kernel: centre (nocciola).
7. set budding: bring into
bud (far fiorire).
8. o’er-brimmed: overfilled
(fatto traboccare).
9. clammy: sticky
(appiccicose).
10. store: supply of things
kept to use later
(provviste).
11. abroad: around (in giro).
12. winnowing: fanning to
separate corn from chaff
(ventilazione per vagliare
il grano).
13. furrow: long narrow track
cut by a plough in farming
land (solco).
14. Drowsed: sleepy
(assopito).
15. hook: tool for cutting grass
or branches (uncino).
16. swath: line of corn to be
cut (falciata).
17. gleaner: somebody who
collects the ears of corn
left by the reapers
(spigolatore).
18. laden: loaded (carico).
19. oozings: slow emission of
liquid (stille di liquido).
20. barred: shaped like bars (a
striscie).
21. bloom: light up or fill with
beauty and colour
(risplendono).
22. stubble-plains: flat land
filled with the short stalks
left after the harvest (i
campi di stoppie).
23. hue: colour (tinta).
24. wailful: moaning
(lamentoso).
25. gnats: small flying insects
that sting (moscerini).
26. sallows: willow trees
(salici).
27. bleat: sound made by sheep
and lambs (belano).
28. bourn: boundary (recinto).
29. treble: high-pitched voice
(con trillo acuto).
30. garden-croft: small enclosed
field of arable land within
a garden (orto).
1. Stanza I describes the effect of autumn on the countryside through a series of
visual images.
a. What aspect of autumn is particularly emphasised?
b. Which literary device is used in connection with autumn, the sun and summer? To
what effect?
2. Stanza II introduces some activities which are typical of the season.
a. Number the activities in the order they are presented.
a. gleaning
b. reaping
c. cider-making
d. threshing
b. How is autumn involved in these activities?
c. How would you summarise the attitude of personified autumn?
3. Stanza III deals with another aspect of autumn — its music.
Which animals is it produced by?
4. The language can be defined as sensuous in the meaning of appealing to the
senses.
a. Find examples for each of the senses.
(example)
touch:
________________________________________________________________________
smell:
________________________________________________________________________
hearing:
________________________________________________________________________
sight:
________________________________________________________________________
taste:
________________________________________________________________________
b. Look at your findings and identify the sensations which are predominant in each stanza
5. Although parts of the poem have a positive, peaceful tone, the final stanza
indicates the coming of winter and refers to death and dying, both directly and
indirectly.
Find examples of this.
Conclusions
6. Examine the various aspects and attitudes of autumn as they have been depicted.
In your opinion …
a. … is the poem simply a description of nature or is there more to it than that?
b. … is the poet himself present in the ode? Define his role.