An Ode To Autumn by John Keats Poems

An Ode To Autumn, by John Keats

• Poem’s form reflects the three main phases of Autumn. • Can be read as literal celebration of an often neglected season, but also as a metaphor for – and a celebration of – life. • The iambic pentameter reflects the natural rhythm of speech, helping to convey the measured/concentrated flow of the season. • The rhyme scheme is non-repetitive. • An appeal to the senses, with the visual imagery giving way to the aural in the end.

Stanza 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, 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; Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

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, 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; Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.