From the picture of an autumn day we proceed to
the characteristic sights and occupations of autumn, personified in the
spirit of the season.
the characteristic sights and occupations of autumn, personified in the
spirit of the season.
Keats
NOTES ON 'TO AUTUMN'.
In a letter written to Reynolds from Winchester, in September, 1819,
Keats says: 'How beautiful the season is now--How fine the air. A
temperate sharpness about it. Really, without joking, chaste
weather--Dian skies--I never liked stubble-fields so much as now--Aye
better than the chilly green of the spring. Somehow, a stubble-field
looks warm--in the same way that some pictures look warm. This struck me
so much in my Sunday's walk that I composed upon it. ' What he composed
was the Ode _To Autumn_.
PAGE 137. ll. 1 seq. The extraordinary concentration and richness of
this description reminds us of Keats's advice to Shelley--'Load every
rift of your subject with ore. ' The whole poem seems to be painted in
tints of red, brown, and gold.
PAGE 138. ll. 12 seq.
From the picture of an autumn day we proceed to
the characteristic sights and occupations of autumn, personified in the
spirit of the season.
l. 18. _swath_, the width of the sweep of the scythe.
ll. 23 seq. Now the sounds of autumn are added to complete the
impression.
ll. 25-6. Compare letter quoted above.
PAGE 139. l. 28. _sallows_, trees or low shrubs of the willowy kind.
ll. 28-9.
