Language and style

In this section of the study guide, we will address the language and style of the poem “To Autumn” by John Keats which can help you engage in a deeper analysis of the text and better understand the author’s intentions.

Playing with the language

The poet plays with language in this poem mainly through personification. In the poem, autumn is not merely a season, but a person whom the speaker can see from time to time either “conspiring” (l. 3) with the sun to turn the fruits ripe or “sitting careless on a granary floor” (l. 14). The word ‘conspiring’ is, in fact, playful as we normally associate it with fights/competition/war. However, as it turns out, the autumn and the sun conspire for a good purpose, to create abundance.

Playfulness is also created through brief emphasising expressions which add to the overall melodicism of the poem, created through rhythm and rhyme. Here are two examples of emphasis:

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees, (ll. 8-9)

Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours. (l. 22)

Another instance of playful language is the use of rhetorical questions: “Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?” (l. 12); “Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?” (l. 23)

Tense of the verbs

The main verbal tense used i...