“To Autumn” a self-aware ode.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo - Autumn, 1573

“To Autumn” a self-aware ode.

Vazquez Gómez Nefertari

John Keats’ “To Autumn” has been traditionally regarded as the best of Keats’ odes. The following Essay explores the poem under the light of three of the characteristics listed in the definition of the word “Ode” by the Encyclopædia Britannica. The Encyclopædia, defines an ode as “A ceremonious poem on an occasion of public or private dignity in which personal emotion and general meditation are united […] Stesichorus invented the triadic, or three-part, structure.” (Britannica). In the first section, the structure of the poem will be explored under the principles of the Pindaric ode, then the way the poetic object is described will help us emphasize which is the occasion to which the ode is dedicated and this will also help us describe the ceremonial tone of the poem and finally we will explore the imminence of death. 

At a first glance the reader can find two characteristics of the poem that may resemble an ode. The first feature is the title, which may resemble that one by Keats’ “Ode to a nightingale”; the title of the poem consists of two words. The first word is the preposition “To” to indicate the receiver of an action (Cambridge) and the second word is Autumn, capitalized like a proper noun, and this will be reinforced along the poem since the poetic voice personalized the season. This syntax gives the feeling as if the title is a reduced version of “Ode to Autumn”; and this is also important since, there is no word “ode” in the title and no word “Autumn” in the text, but they are referenced in very creative ways. 

The other very noticeable characteristic of the poem that makes resemble the Pindaric ode is the fact that the poem consists in three numbered stanzas. Also, the punctuation in the stanzas is particular because they use colon and semicolons. In this way each stanza could be considered a unit within the poem and would correspond to each part of the Pindaric Ode stanza 1 would represent the strophe, stanza 2 the antistrophe and stanza 3 the epode. (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica). In the Pindaric ode, the three parts corresponded to the movement of the chorus to one side of the stage, then to the other and their pause mid stage to deliver the epode. (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica) and in this sense, stanzas 1 and 3 represent movement in the sense that stanza 1 could represent the transition from Summer to Autumn and stanza 3 the transition from Autumn to Winter; in stanza 2 Autumn is “found” “sitting careless” (line 14) representing the pause.

The first word in the first stanza is “season”(line 1). Seasons as symbols and allegories in art are in fact represented as men and women of varying age in the guise of Olympian gods or as four sacred animals; they also cadence the fundamental moments of human life. (Battistini) The word season makes the reader use his background knowledge and think of the four seasons.  As mentioned before, the word “Autumn” is not used along the poem but, for example in stanza 1 the first verb is “conspiring” a verb that also helps build the personalization of the season. So, the fist stanza is talking about a “season” that is “Close bosom-friend” of the “maturing sun” (ll 2-3), Summer represents Maturity, regarding the moment of human life. In the same stanza the “fruit of the vines” are mentioned, and regarding the Olympian gods, Dionysus represents Autumn. (Battistini)

In stanza 1 the “season” conspires “to load and bless with fruits” (ll 3-4) “bless” is a verb with a religious, or in this case, ceremonious connotation, just as if the poetic voice is paying homage to a god (maybe Dionysus), also these verbs “conspire” and “bless” are actions we would usually link to a person rather to a season. To answer the question posed in stanza 2, Autumn is represented as a virile, elderly man with winged feet, holding a cluster of grapes in his left hand. (Battistini) and stanza 2 in general represents him as surrounded by a harvesting-like landscape “sitting careless on a granary floor” (line 14) “while thy hook spares the next swath…”. Giuseppe Archimboldo uses some of the features mentioned in the poem in his personification of Autumn (1573).

In Western iconography, the autumn landscape is sometimes used as an allegorical image of the old ae and the imminence of death (Battistini). Keats translates this idea since the very first stanza, “fill all fruit with ripeness to the core” (line 5) in the context of the fist stanza, preceded of the verb bless, it gets a somehow positive connotation, but it is also representing the decline of nature towards death. In stanza 2 Autumn is presented with a “hook” or “sythe” (line 17), which sometimes also accompany the personification of death. Stanza 3 represents the last stage   with the feeling of attending to a funeral with the “small gnats mourn” (line 27). Also, considering that Winter is the representation of death as Hades (Battistini), 

References

Battistini, Matilde. Symbols and Allegories in Art. USA: The J Paul Getty Museum, 2005. Printed.

Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/ode-poetic-form . 06 01 2021. Web. 06 01 2021.

Cambridge. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/gramatica/gramatica-britanica/to . 06 01 2021. Web. 06 01 2021.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Epode. 28 February 2008. https://www.britannica.com/art/Pindaric-ode. 06 January 2021.

—. Pindaric ode. 28 February 2008. https://www.britannica.com/art/Pindaric-ode. 06 Jaruay 2021.