The Grasshopper and the Cricket Group

Question:

turner17
turner17
Student
High School - 10th Grade

Of what does Keats's Sonnet XV "On the Grasshopper and the Cricket" make us think about in terms of nature?

the tone of the poem

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Posted by turner17 on Friday July 3, 2009 at 3:34 AM and tagged with form, keats, the grasshopper and the cricket, theme, tone.

Answers:

  1. mwestwood
    mwestwood Teacher
    Community / Jr. College

    eNotes Editor

    As a Romantic poet, John Keats finds solace in Nature.  Thus, in his Petrarchan sonnet, "On the Grasshopper and the Cricket,"the tone, or attitude, of the poet is reflective, as he first expresses the idea in the octave that "the poetry of earth is never dead!"; always it provides music for the soul.  If the birds do not sing, then the grasshopper "takes the lead/With his delights" or, in the sestet, as Keats comments, on a "lone winter evening" the cricket picks up the song of the grasshopper and chirps in the warmth of the stove.

    For Keats and other Romantics, there is continually a source of inspiration and solace for the soul in Nature, the relationsip between life and Nature. This comforting, reflective tone set in his Italian, or Petrarchan sonnet has the idea of Nature followed by a comment in the octave/sestet respectively.

    Sources:
    http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/6510-John-Keats-Sonnet-XV-On-T...

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    Posted by mwestwood on Friday July 3, 2009 at 10:23 AM