Keats' Poems and Letters

how has the Autumn been personified in the poem "To Autumn"?

Autumn been personified in the poem "To Autumn"?

Asked by
Last updated by jill d #170087
Answers 1
Add Yours
Best Answer

In stanza II, Keats uses personification to describe autumn (thought, by some critics, to be represented as a goddess) in the forms of humans at various tasks. The softness of autumn is echoed in a grainer's hair "soft-lifted by the winnowing wind" (15). The next example, of a reaper asleep at the task "while thy hook/ Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers" (17-18), makes reference to living creatures being "spared" death. (This theme is also represented in this poem by the coming winter.) The passage of time, always at the forefront of Keats' mind, is referred to as the worker at a cider-press watches "the last oozings, hours by hours" (21-22). This image could be seen as evoking the last moments before winter, or even death, arrives.

Source(s)

http://www.gradesaver.com/keats-poems-and-letters/study-guide/summary-to-autumn-on-the-sonnet-and-bright-star