Ode to Autumn: John Keats - Summary and Critical Analysis

In this poem Keats describes the season of autumn. The ode is an address to the season. It is the season of the mist and in this season fruits are ripened on the collaboration with the Sun. Autumn loads the vines with grapes. There are apple trees near the moss growth cottage. The season fills the apples with juice. The hazel-shells also grow plumb.

Every stanza has a sense of finality when it closes. The first stanza indicates the rich powers of the season. In the second stanza there is a suggestion of the gradual passing away of time. A sense of sadness comes in the soft dying day. Keats depicts the autumn season and claims that its unique music. In the final stanza, the personified figure of autumn of the second stanza is replaced by concrete images of life. Autumn is a part of the year as old age is of life.

"To Autumn" is sometimes called an ode, but Keats does not call it one. However, its structure and rhyme scheme are similar to those of his odes of the spring of 1819, and, like those odes, it is remarkable for its richness of imagery.