First, let's review what "personification" means. Personification is when an author gives an inanimate object or abstract idea human qualities. In John Keats' poem "To Autumn" the poet begins to personify the season of autumn at the beginning of the poem. In the line "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, / Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;" Keats personifies autumn ("season of mists") by calling it a "bosom-friend," a term usually reserved for humans. A typical way to personify an object/idea is by applying human verbs to it (for example, "the howling wind" or "the raging storm" use verbs to animate elements of the natural world). Throughout the poem, Keats continues to personify autumn by applying human verbs to autumn. For example, the season conspires with the sun (line 3) and later in the poem, sits (line 14) and drowses (line 17).

In the second stanza, the animation of autumn becomes more explicit: Autumn is characterized as if it were a person with human-like adjectives and nouns:

Autumn is no longer an abstract season: she is a person asleep on the floor with her hair lifted by the wind. This is a literal example of personification: Autumn has a head, hair, and body, like a person. The last stanza of the poem zooms out to the cycle of the seasons, and focuses less on Autumn's personification. The key things to notice are this: the use of active, human verbs like "conspire", "bless", "sit"  "sleep" and "watch" as well as the use of concrete words that show autumn as a person: her head, hair. It's a beautiful poem: enjoy!

Give a stanza-by-stanza explanation of Keats's ode "To Autumn." 

The first stanza of Keats's "Ode to Autumn" describes the"“mellow fruitfulness" of the season. Fruit is mentioned several times and, as the cells of the honey bee have been "o'er-brimmed," the stanza itself is brimming with words indicating plenitude and ripeness. Trees bend with the weight of the apples. The sun and the season together fill fruit "with ripeness to the core." They "swell" and "plump" the harvest and "set budding" the flowers. Autumn is portrayed as a season of burgeoning life, which is traditionally the way Spring is presented.

The second stanza more explicitly apostrophizes and personifies Autumn. The season is compared to various people, one "sitting careless on a granary floor" where the grain is being winnowed (separated, wheat from chaff) by the wind, one asleep in a field, one gleaning the harvest in a field with a basket on her head, and another watching the cider oozing from the apple press.

The third and final stanza compares the music of Autumn favorably to that of Spring and lists some of its characteristic sounds of gnats, crickets, bleating lambs, and birdsong, ending with the whistling robin and the twittering swallows. Like the visual images in the first stanza, these aural descriptions evoke the unique charm of Autumn.

Give a stanza-by-stanza explanation of Keats's ode "To Autumn." 

In the first stanza of "To Autumn," Keats personifies autumn as one who is friends with the sun. The personified autumn and sun "conspire" on how to bring fruit and vegetation to their most ripe state. It is just before harvest time; the plants are ripe and full. Autumn is in a vibrant state, so vibrant that the bees might "think the warm days will never cease." The notion of mists and "mellow fruitfulness" indicate an early part of the day. 

Autumn is directly addressed in the second stanza as "thee." The speaker considers autumn during harvest time. Again personified, the speaker thinks of autumn sitting on a granary floor as the grain is being harvested. Then the speaker considers autumn asleep, made drowsy by the perfume ("fume") of the poppies. Finally, the autumn is watching the apples in a "cyder-press." Since the first stanza gives subtle indications of being early in the day, the second stanza would be midday or afternoon as autumn has spent "hours by hours" watching the harvest, a sense of some time gone by. 

After the first stanza of ripeness and the second stanza of the harvest, the speaker tells autumn not to worry about the upcoming winter or the sounds of spring. Even though the end of autumn signals the death of some vegetation and shorter, colder days, autumn's song (sounds) are just as natural as spring's and summers. Interestingly, the speaker encourages autumn to appreciate her (autumn's) sounds in spite of the melancholy symbols that accompany the colder seasons:

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;

Words like "soft-dying", "wailful", and "mourn" indicate a mourning time: the end of autumn. The end of any season indicates change; since this is the natural state of things, the melancholia is joined with a sense of joy. Even though Keats (the speaker) mourned the end of autumn, he celebrated its sights, smells, and sounds for what they were. As the first stanza symbolized morning and the second stanza signaled midday, the final stanza signifies evening or night with the phrase "soft-dying day." The completion of autumn is analogous to the completion of a day; the natural progression of things. 

What is the message of the poem "To Autumn" by John Keats?

In the final stanza, the speaker of the poem suggests that the season of Spring is always thought of as the most beautiful of seasons. However, he wants to make the argument, it seems, that Autumn is every bit as beautiful as Spring; its beauty is simply of a different kind. The speaker assures Autumn that it ought not concern itself with "the songs of spring" because "thou hast thy music too." In other words, the beauty of spring may be less subtle than the "rosy hues" of Autumn's "soft-dying days," but that does not mean that the loveliness of Autumn is any less. There is a beauty in Autumn's abundance and fullness and ripeness, and that is something Spring lacks. The message, then, is that we ought to appreciate the beauty of fall and of finding beauty, perhaps, in unexpected places.

What is the message of the poem "To Autumn" by John Keats?

As always, it's difficult to say what the single most important message of a particular work of literature is, and John Keats' "To Autumn" is no different. However, it is possible to say what one of the major themes/messages is. In general, one can argue that the poem's message focuses on describing the melancholy beauty of the season of autumn and connecting this description to the general beauty of endings and conclusions within the cycles of the natural world.

Throughout the poem, Keats lingers on the beauty of the natural world during autumn. However in the last stanza, he more forcefully connects autumn to the beauty of endings (or death) within the natural world. For instance, Keats says, "Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn / Among the river sallows, borne aloft / Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies" (27-29), and these lines reference the "death" that autumn ushers in in preparation for winter. However, while melancholy, Keats sees this natural "death" as beautiful in its own right, as it follows a productive harvest that symbolizes a fruitful existence. Keats underscores this melancholy positivity by infusing even this last stanza with exceptionally beautiful natural imagery.

How does John Keats personify autumn in the poem "To Autumn?"

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

   Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless . . . 

How does John Keats personify autumn in the poem "To Autumn?"

The personification of autumn begins immediately in the first stanza. Autumn and the sun are compared to a pair of people whispering secrets to each other.  

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; 

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find 

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, 

   Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; 

Explain the poem "Ode to Autumn" by John Keats.

"Ode to Autumn" is a three part praise to the nature of autumn that begins with sensory imagery about spring. The poem follows the definitive strophe, antistrope, epode structural form of an ode. Understanding the form helps guide understanding of the ode.
The strophe (i.e., first stanza) describes spring as the "Season of mists [rains] and mellow fruitfulness" and as the "bosom-friend of the maturing sun." This line has an inversion of syntax in which "maturing" precedes the noun "sun."

The structure of this line should mean that the sun is maturing, or moving further into the year, which is a convention usually reserved for the autumn season or the metaphoric autumn of life. Yet in this perhaps less than successful word scheme, Keats has written "maturing sun" as a play on words. In this syntax, "maturing" refers to the effect of the sun on the "fruitfulness," or abundant fruits, of spring. The remainder of the stanza details the signs of spring and ends with an allusion to summer (i.e., "later flowers for the bees") and to autumn (i.e., "Summer has o'er-brimmed").

Stanza two is the antistrophe, which replies to and balances the strophe. It addresses the personification of autumn, to whom the ode is directed (i.e., "Who hath not seen thee oft"), and describes autumn's activities related to harvest (e.g., "granary floor," "winnowing wind" and "perfume of poppies") and cider making (i.e., "by the cider-press"). In keeping with the balancing function of the antistrophe, it is delivered in a more somber tone than the strophe.

The third stanza is the epode in which the cheerful first stanza and the more somber second stanza are brought together and completed by Keats' description of the song of autumn. This ode contrasts autumn to spring and corrects a conception of autumn being an inferior season to spring. Keats points out that autumn has equally significant activities and a music of its own, thus the poet says, "thou hast thy music too." The rest of the epode describes that music: the flying wings of river swallows; the wind blowing or subsiding; the crickets and redbreasts; "And gathering swallows twitter in the skies."

Describe the person's admiration for autumn in the poem "To Autumn" by John Keats.

There is great love for autumn. What makes this point even starker is that the first stanza is addressed to a different season, summer. Keats is saying that summer is beautiful, as things mature and grow. The language is one of undoubted admiration.

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;

The same goes for the season of spring, which is briefly mentioned in the last stanza in a rhetorical question - "Where are the songs of spring?" 

But as we move along in the ode, Keats begins to enter into his main topic, the beauty of autumn. As he does this, the contrast becomes clearer. Autumn is as great as the other seasons, if not greater. In other words, summer and spring have their glories, but what is more glorious is autumn. Praise by way of contrast is one of the ways Keats shows admiration. 

So, what is autumn like? It is a carefree and soft woman (stanza 2). Autumn has its own music, and nature joins that chorus to sing with lambs, crickets, and birds (stanza 3). All of this praises autumn. Therefore, autumn has no reason for insecurity.