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Keats's Reflection Of Autumn, The Season Of Fog And Growth

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The poet speaks of autumn, the season of fog and production. The first line portrays autumn as a period of growth. Autumn is a close friend of the maturing sun. The word “maturing” is used to describe the shorter daylight of winter. Together, autumn and the sun help the vines that wrap around thatched roofs bear fruit. The image of growth persists in the following lines; the poet describes plants and fruits “bending” or changing shape in reaction to their development: trees bend with the weight of ripening apples, gourds grow in size, and kernels develop in the centers of hazelnuts. Flowers continue to multiply until the bees feel as if warm days will never end. Summer has made its harvest so bountiful that it’s described as “o’er-brimmed” or bursting. In the second stanza, the poet directly addresses autumn. To Keats, autumn is a figure that can be found in the middle of its job, which is to facilitate nature’s growth. Autumn can be discovered sitting in a granary, or storehouse for threshed grain, the blowing wind lifting autumn’s hair. Someone might also stumble across autumn asleep outside on a half-harvested trench, made drowsy by the scent of poppies. Autumn’s scythe is unused against the next line of flowers. The poet additionally compares autumn to a “gleaner” who carries the leftovers of the harvest on top of her head while she crosses a stream. Another activity of autumn is to watch the juice being squeezed from apples for hours. The third stanza opens with the poet asking where spring’s “song” is. In the next line, the poet responds to his question by writing that there is no need to miss spring because autumn has its own benefits and harvest. In the remainder of the stanza, the poet shifts the focus from autumn to a scene of an ending day. A strip of clouds cover the sky as the end of the day draws close. A pinkish color from the setting sun is cast over the “stubble-plains,” or in other words, the short stalks of harvested crops. Gnats buzz in unison among the willow trees near the river, sad that the day is ending. The gnats are kept aloft in the air or are forced to fly down, depending on the state of the wind. The light wind, too, is in a state of unrest; the wind

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