In high school (and again in college) we studied John Keats, and his artistic writing style has never left me. One of my favorite poems of his was "To Autumn," and I think of it every year when autumn comes around. We analyzed (and re-analyzed, and over-analyzed) every word and every detail, so this beautiful image of Autumn that has been pounded into my head is a permanent one. Please read.
1.
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-eves 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.
2.
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.
3.
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.
Another of my favorite autumnal literary pieces (though not quite as favorite as the first one) is Shakespeare's Sonnet 73. This one is an Elizabethan sonnet, as opposed to Keats's Petrarchan sonnet. (I'm just showing off. Actually I'm trying to put my degree to good use... for SOMETHING anyway!) Um... that just means this one is longer, but fewer sets (just one), so... shorter...
| SONNET 73 |
|---|
| That time of year thou mayst in me behold |
| When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang |
| Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, |
| Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. |
| In me thou seest the twilight of such day |
| As after sunset fadeth in the west, |
| Which by and by black night doth take away, |
| Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. |
| In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire |
| That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, |
| As the death-bed whereon it must expire |
| Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by. |
| This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong, |
| To love that well which thou must leave ere long. |
Okay so this one is actually talking about PEOPLE being in the "autumn" of life, so... not really quite so poignant when you really think about it (beauty fades and we will soon die, etc.) but I still like some of the autumn pictures it paints. I don't know if I think about life having seasons so much, but I definitely think of a day that way. Or maybe it's the other way around - I think of the seasons of the year in terms of a day. I will explain:
Summer is midday - it feels like the sun is overhead all the time and you have so much energy!
Autumn is afternoon - you kind of feel like curling up and taking a nap a little bit, and the sun starts to lower a little
Winter is night - and that's all I have to say about winter. Dark and cold. I don't really like winter.
Sooooo.... what's your favorite season? Please take the poll over there --------->
And/or share your favorite autumn insights or writing or sentiments. I'm in a very autumnal mood.
8 sweet nothings:
oh fun, i was the first one to vote!!! autumn is my favorite, hands down!!! those silver leaf maples are the most beautiful trees in the whole wide world. i want a whole row of them leading up to my house someday... when i have a house... that i will live in long enough for trees to be planted and grow significantly... sigh. for now i will just admire them wherever i go :o)
PS: there's a new movie that just came out about john keats. my parents said it was unbelievable... it's called bright star. check out the trailer :o) http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/brightstar/
Thank you for getting me into more of an autumn mood...it's been too cold to feel like autumn. I like John Keats, some writers never seem to run out of words.
The Darkling Thrush
I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.
The land's sharp features seemed to be
The Century's corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless as I.
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.
So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.
Thanks for sharing these, Krista!! They are so perfect for Autumn. I love Autumn too. And your analogy of the seasons and the times of day is so perfectly said!
Oh, and yes I love my jogging stoller! I can convert to hook onto a bike, just like you thought, and we got it at Costco. I LOVE it! It has had much use!
I love autumn with all it's colors, but I have to say winter is my favorite! There's something about snow all sparkly and curling up at the window with a blanket and coco...nice.
Autumn? I remember that - from about 10 years ago. We may have autumn for a day here... maybe.
First, that red tree looks unreal! So beautiful! No autumn here yet - well it is just starting to cool down and maybe, just maybe, some trees are getting a tinge of yellow. I love that the trees are still so full of green here and that there are bushes flowering, but I do miss all those beautiful autumn colors! We'll get them, eventually, I guess.
I don't think I can choose between spring and summer for a favorite season. Matt says that summer is my favorite and I do LOVE summer because of the warmth, but I love spring too with the flowering bushes and budding trees. I really can't choose.
SWEET! I love the "HALLOWEEN" header again!!! YEAH! Matt told me about Travis's email after the BYU game. Way to look on the bright side!!
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