Author: Ano Sensei
Format: Video
Structure: Iambic pentameter, Ode stanza
Related content:
- • Keats: To Autumn – Reading & Analysis (Playlist) (Video Playlist)
- • Keats: To Autumn – Analysis (Video)
- • Keats: To Autumn – Reading & Analysis (Video)
John Keats, "To Autumn". An illustrated reading.
For Keats himself, walking the countryside with thoughts of his approaching death and his love for Fanny Brawne, whom he was too poor to marry, "To Autumn" was a brief oasis in a broadly hostile landscape.
For some sixty years now, this poem has been lurking in the corner of my mind each time the nights grow longer and the days grow colder and gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.Show More
10 Comments
Your voice is awesome!! I really enjoyed it!! Thank you so much.
I’m glad you liked it! You can find my other poetry videos here: https://tinyurl.com/anopoetry
Very creative ! The use of different media and your voice make the poem come to life – love it !
Thank you for the feedback! I’m working on the analysis of the third stanza; it should be ready soon!
@anosensei Looking forward to it!
@sempksemp Sometimes “real” life makes demands on my time, but it should be ready soon!
I appreciate how much effort you put into this video. It’s a little over the top, but this is also what makes up its strange appeal.
Thank you for the feedback! Yes, I think I got more carried away with this reading than I usually do. I’m just trying out ideas, really, to see what works best. I think, though, that I will also upload a “straight” reading, without all the added visuals and sound effects. I’ll be interested to see which version YouTube viewers prefer!
@anosensei Sound effects in poetry readings are an interesting idea, though. Not necessarily echoes but sounds that bees make, water, birds, whatever fits the poem, it really connects you to nature. It’s so much better than music.
@laoshu8311 Right! I used all three here – music, echoes (or actually a different recording fading in and out from time to time) and nature sounds. The latter at times felt almost comic to me (cue bees, cue bleating lambs, etc!), but since many of my viewers are not native speakers I thought the sounds and visuals might help. I think even some native speakers may find this kind of thing helps them to visualize the poem. But, as you say, I need to be careful to keep it in balance, and not go over the top!