CC - IX: A Critical Appreciation Of John Keats' Ode to Autumn

 

John Keats' Ode to Autumn, the last of the great odes, is a classic example of perfection of workmanship. In this ode the poets love of nature finds the fullest expression. It gives a vivid description of the season Autumn with all its warmth and richness. It is in this ode that the poet gets full rid of his emasculating despair. The poet welcome Autumn even if it be the prelude to Winter. To be precise, the poet's attitude reflected in this poem is one of acceptance without grumbling over its condition. It occurs to him that acceptance is the be-all and end-all of living.

                                      Now that the poet has regained his equanimity and he finds it reflected in the calm beauties of nature. The season's exquisite sights and sounds have charm of their own- a placid charm. The poet has outgrown his immaturity and what appeals to him most is the maturity that he finds everywhere in nature during Autumn. 'Mellow' is introduced in the very first line when he hails Autumn as the "season of mists and mellow fruitfulness". In the next line the world 'maturing' and in the sixth line the world 'ripeness' adds a further dimensions to the process of growth-"And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core". It is this mellowness that brings fruitfulness all around, i.e. ripeness, fecundity and maturity go with the season. And this is followed by images suggestive of a mother -figure which is fertile, sacred and strange. It is her mysterious union ('conspiring') with the sun, the products of which are found everywhere as much in the grapes and apples h in the ground and hazel shells. It suggests that the creative process is in full play during Autumn. To describe the autumnal bountifulness, one cannot resist one's temptation to refer to Edgar's words in Shakespeare's play king Lear -"Ripeness is all".

                                     Autumn emerges as deity or earth goddess leading natural objects to fulfill their generative and creative urge and both men and animals have a share in the rich fruition. The reference to the 'thatched cottage 'and the bee-image connects the the world of nature with the human world and the animal world respectively. The poet's emphasizes is on movement or temporal succession of which the bees are unaware in the benumbing happiness. They still sucking honey out of the later flowers, believe that summer is continuing-"until they think warm days will never cease". That life flows on the operations in the natural order continue is stressed in the second stanza. In other words, here the mother-goddess, in watching, directing and actively participating in the next stage of operation encompasses the process in its totality and projects herself into each object-she is the harvester and the gleaner, she is also the granary and the corn. First, she is seen 'sitting careless 'on the floor of the granary. Secondly, she is found asleep on a 'half-reaped furrow' after the morning's hard work. Thirdly, she is carrying the load of grains (she keeps her head steady while crossing a brook). Fourthly, she appears beside a cider-press and watches with patient look the making of vintage. The different operations show Autumn as a familiar human figure, but she also partakes of the mystery of the eternal order. It is to be noted that the exuberance of the first stanza is we collected in tranquility in the second.

                            Whereas the fast and the second stanza evoke the picture of of abundance in nature and fullness of beauty, the concluding stanza brings thoughts of impermanence of the season. The entire stanza offers a catalogue of chiefly auditory and visual images which fuse the countries-continuity and decay, the fullness of life and the spectra of death. Though the thought of winter and death suffers the poet's vision of beauty with pain, he enjoys the season Autumn to the last extent. The dirge-like music of the small gnats, the bleating of the  full-grown lambs, the chirping of the hedge-crickets, the whistling of the red-breasts and the twittering of the swallows suggest the images of life which enables the poet to counteract the melancholy austerity of late Autumn.

                      To conclude, Keats  presents the seasonal cycle, the moment of fruition and opulence along with the harvesting operation with remarkable objectivity. And the poet also incorporates into the the formwork his own pangs and doubts. What he observed within himself the pain and desolation that afflict the human heart and retains their quintessencess.