Sunday, March 1, 2009

An autumnal poem

To Autumn: John Keats

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-eves 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,
Until they think warm days will never cease, 10
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

2.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; 15
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook; 20
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

3.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, 25
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;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; 30
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.


Alright then Keats...why is it going to be 30 plus degrees here today. Clearly you know nothing about Autumn at all.

This is one of my favourite poems though.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, The Romantic Poets: Jolly good writers but not so hot on meteorology. Not very Autumnal here either, it's in the very high twenties and muggy and close. The poor Labradors are panting. A Lot.

Wendy said...

ugh...i thought it would a lovely breezy autumn day down there. poor puppies...stay cool all of you!

Anonymous said...

Lucky Keats, living in a country that had a real autumn.

It's one of my favourites, too. If Keats had a tagline, it should have been "Less wanky than Wordsworth!"

Wendy said...

Great tagline!! Totally agree.
yes we just don't get autumn here do we? particularly in queensland.

Anonymous said...

My favourite season autumn but I haven't experienced it since l989 when living in Canada. It is just glorious with the colours. Oh, those colours. Getting very homesick now.

Wendy said...

that's what was exciting about england in october/november....the colour!