Analysing John Keats's 'To Autumn' (Part Two) - DystopiaJunkie Analysis
Вставка
- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- This video is the second part of my analysis of 'To Autumn' by John Keats, which is part of the WJEC Eduqas English Literature Poetry Anthology.
In this video, I finish analysing the poem (focusing on its language, imagery, and structure), discuss and explain its "Three M's", think about the themes it could relate to, and also provide you with an optional revision task! Hopefully that should be enough to help you with your GCSE English Literature revision!
If you've found this video helpful, useful, or interesting, don't forget to drop it a like, subscribe to my channel, and turn on that notification bell, so that all future GCSE English Literature revision content ends up straight in your subscription feed!
You're also welcome to use the comments section to ask me questions about the poem, add your own pieces of analysis, or to let me know which parts of the video you found the most useful!
Thanks to my amazingly talented friend Charlie for creating my channel icon, banner, and watermark! You can find more examples of his phenomenal work here: charlielanebus...
Don't forget to follow @DystopiaJunkie on Instagram and Twitter for more updates!
I'm 62 years old, a lifelong student of poetry, paying attention to Keats for the first time. Your two videos on To Autumn were most helpful. Love this poem.
I don't know if you remember me but I used your old videos to revise just before the exam and got a grade 8, 2 marks off of a 9. I got a remark and got 19 extra marks! I don't understand how English Lit marking can be so random but thank you for all the revision videos you put out!
Of course I remember you! That's an insane increase in the remark - an 8 is a serious achievement in itself, but to absolutely smash a 9 is phenomenal - well done to you for all of your hard work (and to your teachers too, I'm sure)!! Thank you for the support and kind words, and for letting me know too. :)
Very helpful analysis, thanks for putting in the effort. You deserve to get more views!
Thank you for your kind words! I'd like more views too haha - please feel free to share my videos with your classmates, friends, or even your English teacher(s) to help me out!
Hey, so I'm not sure if you'll respond to this but I'm 99% sure that keats knew he was dying when he was writing as he had studied medicine and knew the symptoms of TB well. His mother had also died of TB. And I was curious to hear how you think this may have influenced his writing and if you already knew this? For me you can kind of read into "Autumn" symbolising his life coming to an end and the oncoming winter his inevitable death. Therefore the seasons he discusses in the poem are actually a metaphor for the lifespan of an individual. Also it goes without saying your videos are incredible and a joy to watch :)
This needs more views!!! Thank you very much for this!!! I just wanted to ask you know the rhetorical question in the last stanza could you say that the persona thinks autumn is not appreciated enough, almost like asking ‘where are the songs about autumn?’
Thanks for the kind words! If you want to help me get more views, please do share my videos with your friends and classmates (and maybe even your English teacher)!! 😊
To answer your question, I assume you mean the first line of the final stanza, 'Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?'? I'd say both yes and no to what you've said, here's why:
Yes, I think the persona suggests that Autumn isn't appreciated enough. That's because there is a challenging tone in the two questions that suggests that people praise spring a bit too much, but when the persona reassures autumn that it 'hast thy music too', this is almost like they are comforting it, telling it that it is just as beautiful and wonderful and amazing.
The reason why I might so no is that I don't think the persona is asking where the songs about autumn are. There's no question that appears to ask this; instead there's just that reassurance that 'thou hast thy music too'.
It's a bit like this: Spring is the person who everyone loves and always praises, whereas Autumn is the person who quietly gets on with it, is just as good as - if not better than - Spring, but doesn't receive as much praise or attention. Does that make sense?
In short: yep, I think they are saying autumn is underappreciated, but no, I don't think they ask where its songs are, they just assure it that it does have them.
DystopiaJunkie
Thank you so much! This helped a lot and im defo sharing!
Good idea to use a venn diagram for comparison. Thanks for your analysis and for your clear and lovely delivery. :)
Thanks for your kind message - hopefully the venn diagram method is beneficial! 😊
Your videos have been very helpful, Thank you!
Thank you for your lovely comment 😊
I think the enjambment could also refer to the over flowing and abundance of Autumn itself with the plentiful harvest.
Thanx for the Analysis .....it really helped me a lot to understand the poem for my online clases!!!!!
You're very welcome - glad to be of assistance in these strange times!
thank you so much especially for you useful advices.
Its a very nice explain to the students .thank you
Cheers big man
Great analysis 👍
Thanks for the kind words! :)
Thank you so much
You're very welcome! 😊
yes
mad tings
How do you modernize this poem? I'm trying to help my daughter but never had to do this in school. Please help me understand 🙏
So central to understanding the poem (in the original or in a modernised version) is knowing that Keats is celebrating autumn by presenting it as an essential (and amazing) worker during harvest time.
A rough modern version might read something like (and I'll try to lay this out line by line):
Autumn,
A dear friend of the sun,
Working with the sun to load up
The vines that surround the thatched roof with fruit,
And to make the old trees by the cottages so full of apples that their branches bend
And to make all fruit super ripe.
To make cucumbers and squash grow massive and make the hazelnut shells large
Because the nuts are big, and to help more and more flowers to bloom
So that the bees can pollinate them
And there will be so much pollination to do that the bees will think that summer will never end
Because their honeycombs are so full of honey
(I'll do stanza 2 and 3 in a separate comment!)
Stanza 2:
Who hasn't seen you(r work) in the storehouse?
Sometimes someone might find
You resting on the floor of the grain house
With your hair flowing in the wind,
Or they might find you sleeping in the shallow trenches made by the plough ('furrows'),
With the smell of poppies in your nose (this could also refer to opium!), while your scythe
Lies next to you, sparing the next crop and its flowers:
Sometimes like a gatherer of crops you
Take a sip of water from a brook
Or a cider-press, and patiently,
You watch it squeeze out juice slowly.
Stanza 3:
Where are the songs about spring? Yeah, where are they?
Don't think about them (or get jealous) because people sing about you too.
When clouds fill the evening sky
And make the reaped fields ('stubble-plains') look pink;
That's when a choir of gnats mourn
Among the willows by the river, rising
And falling with the breeze;
And lambs bleat from nearby fields;
Crickets sing, and in a soft but high voice
A robin sings from a small field;
And swallows sing in the sky
I hope that helps! As I said, I tried to do this line by line and not mess with the structure too much.
This is also by no means the only interpretation or modernisation of the poem - I'm sure people could translate the lines differently!
I hope this helps you to help your daughter 😊 of course, analysing the original poem is what counts, but I hope this gives you that first step to getting there 😊
when u said autumn is personified as a hard worker, sure i understand that! my teacher said that he personifies her as a beautiful women- what do u think?
same with my teacher she said that autumns personified as a greek godess haha
Sutton academy revision👌
fresh trim and dat
you are really great, your videos are more than usefull, but everytime i watch them i feel like i'm listening to a robot, please it's almost painfull man
Haha, duly noted! I usually try to slow down when I record so that I'm as clear as possible, but perhaps it's a bit too much and I've lost all expression! I'll bear this in mind for future recordings 😊
bet u get bare gyals
right pal if you’re going to talk about enjambment atleast highlight it mr dystopian junkie. do better.
I wish you were my English teacher. 🤣
Well if you're watching my videos, I'd say I sort of am teaching you! 😁