Stanza 2: Autumn Personified

The Leisurely Nature of Autumn

The second stanza of "To Autumn" continues the personification of the season, presenting autumn as a calm and unhurried presence:

Quote: "Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? / Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find / Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,"

This section of the To Autumn poem PDF showcases Keats' ability to create a character out of a season. The Ode to Autumn line by line explanation for this stanza would highlight:

1. Autumn depicted as a figure that can be encountered in various settings
2. The leisurely and calm nature of autumn, contrasting with the busy harvest
3. Imagery that blends human and natural elements

Vocabulary: Granary - A storehouse for grain, symbolizing the abundance of the harvest.

The stanza continues with more vivid imagery:

• Autumn's hair "soft-lifted by the winnowing wind"
• Sleeping on a "half-reap'd furrow"
• Drowsy with the "fume of poppies"

Highlight: The image of autumn sleeping amid the harvest emphasizes the season's peaceful nature, even as it represents a time of great activity in the agricultural cycle.

This stanza is crucial in understanding the Ode to Autumn theme of time and its passage. Autumn is portrayed as being in no rush to move on, savoring its moment in the cycle of seasons.

Example: The line "Or by a cyder-press, with patient look, / Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours" beautifully captures the slow, patient nature of autumn and the process of harvesting.

This portrayal of autumn as a calm, almost dreamy figure adds depth to the poem's exploration of nature and time, making it a rich source for To Autumn context discussions in literary analysis.