A Perfect Poem?: History, Meaning and Influences in John Keats’s “To Autumn”

Abstract

This article seeks to consider different interpretations and meanings of Keats’s “To Autumn”, the last of the great odes, written on 19th September 1819. Among English Romantic poetry texts, this composition offers a serene description, although there are critics who have highlighted its ideological overtones. We intend to analyze the sense of each stanza, identifying the influences on the text. In spite of the fact that the reader can see that the word ‘ode’ is not present explicitly in the title, this is not a problem, since there can be no doubt that we must understand this composition as such, and it has even been considered to be a perfect work. Having studied the structure and the relationship between “To Autumn” and Keats’s Spring Odes, especially “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, it seems necessary to resolve the ambiguity that is documented throughout the poem. Recalling that the composition suggests, or at least tries to show, a revival of nature, there is some degree of frustration, as Winter symbolizes death, while the ‘poetic ego’ desires to believe in a season that is still remote.