John Keats’ “To Autumn” is written in a three-stanza structure with a variable rhyme scheme. All of the stanzas are eleven lines long and is metered in an iambic pentameter, meaning that the pattern of the syllables alternate from unstressed to stressed. In terms of rhyme scheme, the stanzas are in two parts. The first four lines of each stanza follows an ABAB pattern (Lines 1 and 3 rhyme while lines 2 and 4 rhyme). This first part is used to define the subject of the stanza. The last seven lines vary in rhyme scheme which are arranged CDECDDE. This second part is used to further develop the subject. The poem starts off with how the season of autumn ripens the fruit and causes the late flowers to bloom in the first stanza. In the second stanza, the speaker describes autumn as a female goddess, often seen sitting on the granary floor or sleeping in the fields. In the third stanza, autumn is awaiting the season of spring. But it should realize that it has its own beauty too.
In stanza I, Keats describes autumn with a series of vivid images. These descriptions are very active, showing autumn at peak season, where the fruit continues ripening at an alarming rate. At first the sun "load and bless" by ripening the fruit (Page 849, line 3). But then so many apples start to emerge that their weight bends the tree limbs. The flower bloom-age is so overwhelming that even the bees’ hive is “o’er brimm’d” with honey (line 11). In stanza II, the imagery shows less action, autumn is nearing the end. The setting is more laid back. The wheat fields are only half way reaped. The swell of apples has come down to the last batch because the goddess is watching the “last oozings” from the cider press drip out (line 22). In stanza III, autumn is dying. There are no more signs of spring. The death of autumn is like the “soft-dying day” (line 25), the sunset brings a pleasant “rosy hue” to the stubble harvested fields (line 26). Winter is now approaching and the swallows fill the sky as they migrate south. It is apart of the cycle of time and process. In time the flowers will bloom once more and the birds will return.
“To Autumn” is very descriptive in form. The entire poem acts as a metaphor. When autumn's harvest is over, the fields will be empty, the cider-press dry, and the skies empty. The sense of grief is infused in the poem. But the cycling seasons softens the loss of autumn. There is simplicity in Keats's song to the season of autumn, with its fruitfulness, its flowers, and the song of its birds gathering for migration. The calm and gentle descriptions of autumn are not obscured when the exploration of themes are developed. Autumn is a time of warmth and abundance, but it is on the edge of winter's cold and desolate coming. Despite the approaching chill of winter, the late warmth of autumn provides full beauty to celebrate: the cottage and its surroundings in the first stanza, the agricultural references in the second and the animals in the third.
Percy Shelley’s “England in 1819” is a fourteen-line poem metered in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme is ABABABCDCDCCDD. The first six lines deal with England's rulers (the king and the princes) and how they are selfish and overly powered. The last eight lines speak of the common people’s struggles. The last couplet implies what hope can come of this horrid state of nation.
In “England in 1819,” Shelley describes the corrupt aristocracy as preying on the common people’s sufferings. The king is despised because of his actions, and his sickly condition produces no pity in the heart of the working class. The king is incapable of seeing, feeling, or knowing, but clings to his "fainting country" (page 800, line 5). Shelley also addresses the plight of the working class and the ways that the ruling class is oppressive. The king is shown as an “old, mad, blind, despised, and dying” ( line 1). His sons are described as low life leeches that do not see, feel, or know what happens to their country. The people are suffering with hunger and oppression. The army is corrupt and is feared. But there is hope yet in the end because Shelley starts to use lighter words like glorious and illumine near the end.
Shelley uses a lot of descriptive words to show how he feels towards England. He uses dirty and grim words to create a certain images to relate with the aristocracy. These words are associated with negative images. He is using them to point out the terrible state in which his nation fallen into. A sealed book describes no religion. The people are too famished to practice faith, maybe they do not believe because of the conditions they have been put in. All of this imagery magnifies Shelley’s focus on addressing the public. He wants them to take action in order to make a change for the greater of the nation.
Shelley also uses a handful of metaphors to express his feelings towards the oppressive burden upon the working class. He describes the princes as leeches that are sucking their nation dry. The rulers are selfish and do nothing to help the depressed state. In fact they make it worse by preying on their own people. The army is described as a two edged blade that has no mercy. The laws are said to be “golden and sanguine” but in reality they gray and grim (line 10).
Both Keats’ and Shelley’s poems are similar in form because the stanzas are broken down into parts. The first part of the stanza introduces a subject and the second part goes into more detail. Both poets also use very descriptive imagery that enables the reader to feel and vividly see the themes of each poem even though the approaches are different. Keats poem is more descriptive and straight forward in observation while Shelley’s descriptions, shown metaphorically, are politically influenced. Keats sees physical change in the seasons, while Shelley wants to see and is advocating structural changes in the social system.
Ferguson, Margaret; Salter, Mary Jo; and Stallworthy, Jon. The Norton Anthology of Poetry. ed 4. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1996.
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