Keats: To Autumn – Reading & Analysis (Playlist)

Keats "To Autumn", Stanza 1: Reading and analysis. Ripeness and fruitfulness. Use of alliteration

A close reading and analysis of the first stanza of Keats's "To Autumn" (1819). The stanza opens with one of the most celebrated lines in English poetry — "Season of ...mists and mellow fruitfulness" — and builds a rich network of alliteration and imagery to create an atmosphere of warmth, ripeness and pastoral comfort. But beneath the surface, hints of overripeness and decay are already present. Part 1 of a stanza-by-stanza series — see playlist for the other videos in the series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzVb6yL_jY6_UMFaLJrp1yw6NH0DQB5zy

0:00 A reading
0:48 Analysis of lines 1-4
0:58 Alliteration
1:46 Alliteration and diction
2:47 A summary of the analysis so far
3:20 Pastoral elements
3:39 Lines 5-6: The theme of fruition
3:59 Lines 7-10: Too much of a good thing?
4:52 Contamination of an ideal world
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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.Show More