Fall in Vermont was the most memorable of all. Fall in New York State was vibrant and alive. But, Fall in Cape Girardeau stays with me and grows on me. I could still feel the leaves at my feet as I trudged downhill back to my abode; The soft wind lifting my hair as I looked at the opposite bank of the Mississippi River.
Keats's "To Autumn" reminds me of the things I miss; things I wish would still be. Alas, those days are far gone. Those were the days when I felt the world was at my feet.
'To Autumn" has always brought me back to a place I wish to remain.
Has "To Autumn" evoked any strong emotions in you, or it is THE POEM that you can never get it?
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ReplyDeleteAssalamualaikum Puan Jue and hi friends,
ReplyDeleteJohn Keats describes “To Autumn” with lovely description, calm and gentle. The meaning in the poem is straightforward because there are not a lot of words that confused you to know about what the poet is referring to. We could find some ambiguity when the poet is describing the author as if it was a person.
“To Autumn” is written in a three stanza with variable rhyme scheme. Each stanza has eleven lines long with iambic pentameter. The different stanza are divided into two parts, where the first part of each stanza rhyme the first line with the third and the second line with the fourth. While the second part of each stanza is longer and varies in rhyme but with smooth flowing rhythm.
To my opinion, this poem is not complex or confusing because the poet, John Keats immerses the reader emotions of autumn and keeps reminding the passage of time as we read along the poem. Although I do not have any experience in feeling the ‘real’ autumn, only hearing the experience of my best friend who had just came back from Australia and look at the pictures, I can say, “Wow! I can fall in love at the first sight”. I look at the pictures along the scenic Brisbane River in autumn. My God...it is really beautiful.
If that is autumn, definitely I like it and of course all the things that Keats tells us are true. He tried to emphasize to the readers that everything is good and nice in autumn. Keats is very optimistic and do not want us to be sad when the autumn comes to the end. He describes the poem femininely and dedicates the poem to all aspects of autumn, includes dying and sadness. This is what he wants to accept (including me)....the reality of the mixed nature of the world.
ROSILA ISMAIL Sem 4 TESL (J40727)
Good evening to the lovely Pn.Ju and my fellow friends,
ReplyDeleteIn my perspective, ‘To Autumn’ carries the theme of ‘one should never take things for granted’. It somehow reminds me of another great poem ‘Nothing Gold Can Stay’ by Robert Frost. I believe these poems share a similar theme except that ‘To Autumn’ contains more personification and it conveys a happier and more vibrant choice of words.
Keats used the beauty of nature during autumn to describe the perfect season and situation. He also used the personifications in the second stanza to describe an image of autumn which symbolizes the whole process of life. To Keats, autumn symbolizes maturity in human and animals’ life. The theme of ‘one should never take things for granted’ is further stressed in the third and final stanza. Here Keats questioned ‘where are the songs of spring?’ (Stanza III, line I) then, he assured himself and the readers to ‘think not of them’ (Stanza III, line II). Keats reminds us to remember but not indulge in the past no matter how beautiful the memory is because we have to face the reality and move on.
Pn.Ju, I strongly agree with you when you said that this poem reminds you of the things you miss and brings you back to the place you wish to remain. I have never experienced autumn nor have I looked at the Mississippi River but I believe that it is the memory that we have that makes us dwell in it. Sometimes it strikes me too..and I wish I can experience those beautiful memories all over again. Then déjà vu will strike again perhaps three years from now when we have completed our degree and when we have all looked back and reminisce of the good old studying days, learning English literature which I never thought would be so beautiful with you,Pn.Ju..and my dearest friends who have been with me through thick and thin (ladies, you know who you are and you’re a star!)All these beautiful memories will be wrapped in our tiny cerebrum but I will definitely remember and cherish them for the rest of my life! Alas that reminds us again to cherish what we have now for one should never ever take anything for granted!
Hi Pn.Ju and friends,
ReplyDeleteMy first impression of To Autumn was that John Keats was simply describing the main characteristics of autumn, and the human and animal activities related to it. A deeper reading of the poem could suggest that Keats talks about the process of life and autumn symbolizes the maturity in human. This has been mentioned by Levinia and I do agree with her.
For me To Autumn by Keats is a poem that shares about the daily routines of life just as autumn that passes on to other seasons and soon before we realize it is autumn again and it is an ongoing process of life. Just as how Keats has described To Autumn our life is so alike the autumn. We take life as it comes. Whatever hurdles that comes our way we face it with a brave heart and we do not give up even though we find others and god to blame it on. At some point in life we do look back at the beautiful moments we have had with friends and our family members and wish that it has remained the same.
If I could go back in time it would be to have spent more time with my beloved sister who has passed away of breast cancer. The guilt and the emotions I felt upon her death will always remain. It is not only beautiful memories and happy moments that we want to remain in but such sad memories will not be erased even as you try. As such, I still move on in life carrying this guilt and regret of not having spent enough time with her despite the fact that I do hold some very beautiful memories of us together.
That is life, friends. It goes on not waiting for you. As said by Levinia do not take life for granted. If you miss the boat than you only can look back and ponder upon it. So, we need to live everyday of our life as if it is the last day of our life.
Hi Puan Jue and everyone,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your knowledge with me … I am greatly appreciate it. Remember the wealth of knowledge when shared only multiplies and comes back to benefit you …
As for I, To Autumn" is one of the simplest of Keats's odes. The extraordinary achievement of this poem lies in its ability to suggest, explore, and develop a rich abundance of themes without ever ruffling its calm, gentle, and lovely description of autumn. In "To Autumn," the image of Autumn winnowing and harvesting is an explicit metaphor for artistic creation. The act of creation is pictured as a kind of self-harvesting in another poem; the pen harvests the fields of the brain, and books are filled with the resulting "grain." In "To Autumn," the metaphor is developed further; the sense of coming loss that permeates the poem confronts the sorrow underlying the season's creativity. When Autumn's harvest is over, the fields will be bare, the swaths with their "twined flowers" cut down, the cider-press dry, the skies empty. But the connection of this harvesting to the seasonal cycle softens the edge of the tragedy. In time, spring will come again, the fields will grow again, and the birdsong will return. Abundance and loss, joy and sorrow, song and silence are as intimately connected as the twined flowers in the fields.
In the second stanza, the poet personifies autumn as a woman performing various activities in a way to portray autumn. Also this marks a transition in the poem where in the first stanza it portrays an image of rushing things, activity....in the second the activities start to slow down(use of words like "hours by hours", "sound asleep") And this overall I feel is symbolic of the transition in the seasons as well i.e. from summer to autumn.
To me life is a beautiful thing that should not be wasted. Life must be lived without warning. It is not to be taken for granted. Believe me; we will never fully understand life, not even in a million years.
So dear friends, enjoy your life and what you have and never take it for granted….. Life is too short to be wasted. Until then, miss you all.
NORIAH BT MOHAMED (J40724)
Hello Pn. Ju and all….
ReplyDelete“To Autumn”..This poem is one of my favorite and closest to my heart because the message John Keats is trying to convey on not taking anything for granted is close to my own personal experience. Before I describe further about this, I would like to write on how close are nature components to John Keats poems. In this poem, he used many nature components to bring out the message of nothing last forever, its temporality, and all the changes that takes place. Besides the autumn itself, we also get to see words like ‘sun’, ‘trees’, ‘fruit’, ‘flowers’, ‘bees’ and ‘wind’ and we know its closely related to nature. Keats also used nature component in ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ when he used to symbol of a bird to bring out the theme of escapism on how the persona in that poem wants freedom and to get away from pain and sufferings. I must say that, I think Keats is a nature lover and we see it clearly in most of his poems.
As in this poem, autumn is described as something which is not permanent. Autumn is something sad but Keats has put it in such a way that we see it of an experience provider. Keats used imageries to evoke the reader’s senses.The imageries used in this poem range from auditory, tactical, visual, and kinesthetic. In the 1st stanza, visual imageries were used by Keats, ‘fruitfulness’ and ‘ripeness’ allow us to picture tress and other plants. These tress and its cycle is not permanent as well because human will only need it when it gives them fruits or flowers and then when it no longer able to produce it, it will be left to die before new trees are planted to replace the old ones. Someday when the new tress grows and do not produce the same amount or quality of products, only then they regret of not taking care of the old trees. Same goes for some of us, when we have something in life, sometimes we fail to appreciate and cherish this gift. Only when it is gone, we sit and regret of losing it. Like what KAK ROSILA said, John Keats is trying to teach us to be optimistic and never be sad when something comes to an end.Even in friendship, new friends replace old ones although the values in them may differ from one another.In the 2nd stanza, besides imageries, Keats also used personification when he personified the autumn as a human using human activities as in “sitting careless on a granary floor”. Besides that, “hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind” is also another example of personification he used. In the 3rd stanza, Keats concludes that autumn is temporary and that it is coming to an end as in “soft-dying day”.
“The Autumn’ did evoke a great amount of emotions in me because I had to walk out of ‘the state of being taken for granted’ to realize that I still have other people around me. I do agree with KAK NORRY when she said that life is too short and beautiful to be wasted. So I have made that painful experience a lesson and it has really taught me on how to be thankful of what I have. Seriously, I have no regrets on losing some things in life because that has taught me to appreciate others more. Besides that, I finally learnt and discovered those people who will be there for me till the end and who are those who ‘will get down at the next station’.
Pn. Ju, when u said that 'To Autumn" has always brought you back to a place you wish to remain….gosh what a coincidence as I wish to remain in my childhood. Being around my parents and two brothers was the most wonderful time I had. Living as an adult is too difficult for me to handle…I have to face a great amount of problems and pain in life. I don’t remember being in such situation being a child. At that time, I used to sit and grumble on why I can’t do this and that but now, I would do anything to turn back the time. Besides my family members, I do miss my childhood friends,Linda, Bee Chiu, Lakwan and Aida.Although I m learning to move on with what I have now, I still think of how nice it would be to go back to how I was 20 years ago…and I do miss that a lot.
SUBASHINI A/P SHANMUGAN PJJ BPTESL 4 (J40730)
"To Autumn" is a poem full of emotional treats. It obviously made to feel it emotionally as I myself has an emotional character.
ReplyDelete"To Autumn" is a poem for anyone who has a little trouble letting good things come to an end. It could be a relationship, a cherished experience, or just something you outgrow. And, of course, it could even be a favorite time of year.
In "To Autumn," Keats finds beauty in the lengthening days, chilly weather, and brown fields of fall, the time just before winter squelches the last bit of warmth and everyone retreats to their fires and hot cider..thus we have to find beauty in the neglected corners of life which most of us missed..
A question always pops into my mind..What's the secret to letting a good thing end with grace and good humor?
I got the answer... always look forward, never back!!! I will take lesson from the past but will never regret of what had happen..
When Keats thinks about the flowers of spring and summer, he's thinking about the seeds that are being dropped to bloom next year, and not what happened last year.
So.... soak up every last bit of goodness at that moment without worrying about what comes next. This particular message is useful to me as I can get easily worried for nothing..
Sadly, Keats was to become a living example of things coming to an end too soon. He died at the age of 25, only two years after completing this poem...we have missed more good poems..
SIVASANGHARI A/P NADARAJAN
J36340
BPTESL SEM 8 ( UPM PJJ)
how beautiful was a season change? we might not experience the beauty of autumn in Malaysia, however through the series of specific,concrete and vivid visual images describes in the poem "To Autumn" ,we can fell this season of mist.The Sun, the fruitfulness apples trees, the flowers, the bees, the gourds "swell" and the hazel nuts "plump". The description gives readers an enjoyment feeling, its immerse the readers sight, feel and sound of the autumn and its progression.
ReplyDeleteInstead of autumn, Keats also mentioned about spring and summer. The seasons are slowly move,its represent a process or time flux which is unable to stop by human being.
For me, this poem is trying to convince the readers that ours live blends with living and diving, plesant and unpleasant,we need to accept the reality of the mixed nature of the world.
Bong Lee Lee (BPTESL-J40720)sem4 PPL