All About Books discussion

To Autumn

- An Ode by John Keats


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.


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.


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.

I never get tired of this one Jean - a poem that always bears re-reading. The rhythm and sound alone would be enough to get lost in, even without all those lovely, lush images of ripening that make my toes curl with delight!

My toes do sympathize ;) I've said this before, but this is the kind of English I need to hear rather than read, because otherwise my brain short circuits. So I had Ben Whishaw read it to me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwn6X... which he does beautifully. (I wonder why they've added music to it though, the poem has so much musicality by itself)

Love Keats, great choice Jean.

Reading anything by J. Keats brings me back my college days, i.e, the pleasant memories.

It seems perfect for this time of year - in this part of the world at least. Even though the imagery is often from a past era, we can still recognise the elements of it - the ripening, drowsy, decaying season.

Jenny - sorry if reading it as a second language, it seems particularly dense or impenetrable, but I think it's worth the effort! And thanks for the link :)

Lovely and poignant, especially with winter coming. Yes, Keats is a favorite.

No Jean, dense is great, and I love the English of the time, I just find it much easier to listen to it. When I read it I get too occupied with the individual words or phrases that are a bit harder to understand, whereas when I listen I focus on to the beauty of the language and it's sounds and rhythm much more. I've always loved Keats and sometimes making the effort to understand something via detour makes it all the more precious once you do.

This is interesting, as I find poetry read aloud more difficult to understand - as if I'm missing some clues - unless it is more of a modern narrative.

And whenever I listen to audio books, I have to "see" the names of characters, or terminology (if it is a factual book) as if it's an actual word, written down, but in my minds's eye. That seems to be how my brain works. I love to hear poems like this read aloud, as it adds an extra dimension - the sounds and the rhythm - but I need to see it as well.

I wonder if people fall into two or more types with this, or whether most people are partly both. Even in conversation I will sometimes "see" a word in the air somewhere.

And I'd love to talk to someone who has synaesthesia, to see if I recognise anything!

WHat I consider "poetry": a simple romantic passion!!!

Jean wrote: "This is interesting, as I find poetry read aloud more difficult to understand - as if I'm missing some clues - unless it is more of a modern narrative.

And whenever I listen to audio books, I hav..."

You must be a visual learner Jean. Some people are more aural in their learning; I am in between but closer to you than the other end... I do like poetry aloud, but I like it best if I can have both the text and the sound!

In any case, this is a great poem for autumn -- I love the bit at the beginning of the last stanza.

What an odd way for me to be slanted then, since most of my career has been in Music! (But then I always had a dual passion for both Music and Art.)

I love the pictures it conjures up in my mind. And you can almost smell those fleeting autumnal impressions of the country.

I'm with you Jean. I definitely need to read first to fully understand poems. I can appreciate them read aloud, but I generally only get the broad strokes understanding that way. The best as Leslie says is to have both!

Yes!

I usually prefer to read rather than listen but I find the English on this quite difficult. When I have Internet access on a computer and not just my phone I plan on listening as I read

Heather wrote: "I usually prefer to read rather than listen but I find the English on this quite difficult. When I have Internet access on a computer and not just my phone I plan on listening as I read"

It is, especially for a non mother tongue like me. But, after you've read it carefully, reading it aloud make the difference