To Autumn

            The three dominant imageries present in John Keats poem, To Autumn, are kinesthetic/organic, visual, and auditory, progressing through the early to late stages of the fall season as morning to night. The poem begins with the sun rising on a crisp misty morning at the peak of harvest with kinesthetic and organic sense impressions, "and fill all fruit.//to swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells"(6/7). In the first stanza, the reader feels the physical experience of growth. The morning setting parallels with early autumn and the images create a sense of freshness, abundance, as well as the anticipation of harvest. In the second stanza, the poet personifies autumn and uses visual imagery, "sitting careless on a granary floor,//thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind" (14/15). The imagery is effective as the reader feels that it is late afternoon, the harvest is complete, the grain stores are filled, and the cider press is finishing its work. The tone is of completion, winding down, and foreshadows a change coming. A shift occurs in the third and final stanza as it becomes passive and reflective, "in a wailful choir the small gnats morn.//with treble soft// the red-breast whistles" (27/31/32). The language illustrates two conflicting ideas about autumn, dread and sorrow about the coming winter, as well as appreciation for its "music" or beauty. As evening is upon, the reader feels a sense of accomplishment and an ending. Also, auditory imagery is appropriate for nighttime when hearing is intensified in the darkness. Imagery and time of day in the poem take the reader through the stages of autumn and the experiences related to each phase: in the beginning anticipation and physical action, in the middle seeing completion, and at the end appreciation for the unique beauty of the time tempered an end in sight. A central purpose of the poem deals with the cycle of life- birth, living, and death, also more specifically it could represent the process of events in everyone's life: most things begin with physical action- planing and doing tasks, followed by completion- looking at what was done, and finally end with reflection.