Blessed warmth begins to fade, the insidious chill of winter begins to stretch its ever-present fingers. People begin rejoicing, filling the air with the abomination that is pumpkin spice. The trees lose their shades of green, fading to warmer hues—nature’s pitiful attempt to compensate for the heat of day failing. These same leaves litter the ground, filling the air with a rank of decay and deterioration; men and women are forced to collect and dispose of the leaves. Children glumly file back into school, preparing themselves for the next eight months of incarceration. Halloween decorations begin appearing on people’s houses, lining streets with cartoon pumpkins and skeletons. In John Keats’ poetry, as well as in Samuel Brydges’ and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poetry, fall is portrayed in a favorable light, idolizing the chill and change wrought by autumn’s arrival. All three poets use bright and vivid imagery to convey the wonder in Keats’ and Brydges’ poems, while Longfellow imbues his poem with a sense of majesty.
Keats, forever the romantic, uses a hopeful cant and a vivid lexicon to create a hopeful image of the fall season. Keats tosses around the reminder of the bountiful harvest in the first stanza, talking about the apples, gourds, and nuts; he says that they swell and grow plentiful, to the point that he says the trees “bend with apples.” (Keats, 5) Keats also says that fall winds sweep across the land, showing up in everyone’s stores, in their fields, and by
Explain (tell me what image the poem brings to mind)She begins by describing the "death of winter's leaves".
If an artist were to paint a picture depicting the poem “Oregon Winter” by Jeanne McGahey the colors that would predominate are gray and brown. Some of the visual details are the gray farmhouses with gray smoke coming from the chimneys. There would be soaked green hills in the background and brown “blotches of wet on the dusty road” leading up to the houses and barns. Visible from the windows of the barns are lofts piled high with wet yellow straws. The picture would also capture the sagging plumages of the wild geese flying in the sky next to the bloated gray clouds bursting with rain. Finally, there would be farmers conducting their chores, getting drenched in the slow, heavy rain of winter. It is dreary, and no one is in a rush.
For centuries, seasons have been understood to stand for the same set of meanings. Seasons are easily understood by the reader, and are easy for the writer to use; as Foster states, “Seasons can work magic on us, and writers can work magic with seasons” (Foster 192). The different seasons are a huge part of our lives; we live through each one every year, and we know how each of them impacts our lives. This closeness between people and nature allows us to be greatly impacted by the use of seasons in literature. In addition, Foster lays out the basic meanings of each season for us: autumn is harvest, decline, tiredness; winter is anger, hatred, cold, old age; summer is passion, love, happiness, beauty; and spring is childhood and youth. On the
In John Updike’s poem “The Great Scarf of Birds”, he uses diction and figurative speech to depict the beautiful autumn season to show how inspiring and uplifting nature is to man. Updike chooses autumn as the season to set his story in because generally, it is the season that has the most vivid vibrant colors in nature such as the ripe apples which are described as “red
Seasonal Symbolism is also used in this poem. Right from the beginning the author titles her work, “First Thanksgiving” letting the reader know the poem is set in autumn. In the world of literature, autumn is known to represent decline, middle age and tiredness. Although Olds uses seasonal symbolism in her poem to hint at underlying meanings
Jeremy Karr Karr 1 Mrs. Overbeck AP Literature & Composition November 29th, 2014 “To Autumn” Explication John Keats’ “To Autumn” uses the beauty, and abundance in the season of autumn in his ode to create a sense of transformation and rebirth. The poem begins with talks of autumn’s abundance and ripeness of fruit along with the beauty of autumn’s ability to begin the process of rebirth for plants, showing autumn’s simplicity and beauty. However, the speaker begins to talk as if autumn is a woman, one that wants to enjoy the harvest she has worked for during her life, finally using the beauties or songs of autumn that come out as the day ends to suggest that the speaker would rather enjoy what autumn has to offer in his final moments.
In the beginning of the short story, as Brother reflects on Doodle’s life, the author uses personification and foreshadowing to create a mood of remorse. As he gazes out of the window into his backyard, Brother states that “the graveyard flowers were blooming. ...speaking softly the names of our dead” (Hurst 1). The flowers provide flashbacks of the past, and foreshadow a loss of life. The loneliness felt by Brother causes readers to consider how they would feel if their loved one was gone. As Brother observes the seasons, it is noted that “summer was dead but autumn had not yet been born” (Hurst 1). The personifications of the seasons as stages in the cycle of life and death creates an unsure and uncertain mood. The shift between seasons creates an idea of change and uncertainty of events to come. Hurst creates a mood of remorse through
In today's modern world, the use of poetry to communicate and express oneself has become quite rare. One of the main reasons is due to the fact that with such an old style of writing, it is very often hard to understand properly. poetry is indeed difficult to read and hard to understand, but given time, it is a rewarding challenge. Poetry is not only written verse but is used in songs as well. Taken the time to listen to the words of modern songs, you will realise that the lyrics of the song are actually a poem linking modern day music to poetry.
“The November Cotton Flower” is a poem that not only depicts a late autumn setting where the cotton season comes to an end, but also captures the agony and essence of slavery with the usage of metaphors and similes. In the poem, a product of Harlem renaissance, Jean Toomer illustrates the everyday-life struggles of the African Americans by conveying his point of view through depleting metaphors of the growing season. Taking place in a dismal landscape, the sonnet portrays the cotton of being wilted due to horrible weather conditions. The cotton, the town’s main cash crop, is “as
You can tell that in the poem the season is fall because of the color of the wood. In the fall the color of the wood turns yellow which indicates that the poem takes place in the fall. The season’s representations of what time frame a person life is in. How spring represents how someone is at that kid stage of their lives and how they are getting ready to bloom into their personalities. Summer shows how people are at the fun stage of their lives. That teenage to adult hood part of life. Winter is that time of life when all the excitement has went away, kind of like the years a person is elderly. Here is a man that has had many outcomes from the decision he had made in life, so he understands how important it is to it is to make a choice and live with whatever comes after making the choices. In lines 11-12 the speakers says “And both that morning equally lay, “In leaves no step had trodden black”. When he says the leaves haven’t been trodden black indicates that the leaves haven’t been crushed from people stepping on them. So this means he was the only that have been on that
The authors realizes that his summer is over with the slightest sound of celery’s crispy crunch. His delightment for celery is the reason fall is his most cherished season. The pleasure he receives from feasting on celery is so great it helps him look forward to even the dreadful winter. This passage is mainly about how the the author’s passion for celery affects his mood towards changing season. The author uses many rhetorical devices such as imagery, personification, and diction to help the reader feel the seasonal change and get a more fun and relaxed mood.
A man stood waiting with his hands on his hips. Summertime, and his children played in the front yard with their friend, enacting a strange little drama of their own invention. It was fall, and his children fought on the sidewalk in front of Mrs. Dubose’s. . . . Fall, and his children trotted to and fro around the corner, the day’s woes and triumphs on their faces. They stopped at an oak tree, delighted, puzzled, apprehensive. Winter, and his children shivered at the front gate, silhouetted against a blazing house. Winter, and a man walked into the street, dropped his glasses, and shot a dog. Summer, and he watched his children’s heart break. Autumn again, and Boo’s children needed him. (Lee 373-374
In “To Autumn”, the season autumn is depicted as death, or as the Grim Reaper. Autumn is, however, an unusual reaper figure, in that they are not merciless, but patient and calm. Interestingly enough, the point of view Keats offers about death, is non-violent, not corporeal, and only implicit in the poem, through metaphors. Almost all human components are removed from the poem, and death is symbolized by nature only. It is put into a context where it occurs in the course of nature, and pictured as a consequence of riches, abundance, and fulfilment.
At one time or another, every person has experienced the beauty of summer. In this time of the year, nature is full of life, the weather is at its finest, and the paramount joys of life can be experienced to their fullest. Then the fall comes, the trees turn lovely shades of red and yellow, and the wind offers a nice chill breeze for relief. Unfortunately, seasons change and the beauty that people once experienced vanishes. People focusing only on the material and petty aspects of life, rather than the beauty around them, will let life pass them, missing out on the true wonders of the world. In his poem “To Autumn,” John Keats utilizes imagery to express the importance of indulging in the beauties of nature, while alive, because humans are mortal beings bound by the limits of time.