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

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.

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.

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

   Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless . . . 

Explain each stanza 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 significance of John Keats' title "To Autumn"?

This poem by John Keats, one of the most well-known Romantic poets, is in the form known as an ode, which is a type of poem that is usually intended to celebrate a particular person or thing. The textbook definition is usually a variation of the following: "a lyric poem in the form of an address to a particular subject, often elevated in style or manner and written in varied or irregular meter."

The title of this ode indicates the poem is dedicated to the season of autumn, and Keats writes a very lofty and moving ode to this season. Keats could have created any number of possible titles, but keeping it so simple and yet so wide open (as opposed to naming it after the month in which he was inspired to write it, or after a particular image or idea) allows the reader to meditate upon the entire season of autumn, its warm beginnings, journey through abundance and harvest, and then to its beginning of dormancy in preparation for winter. The imagery suggests humans are deeply tied to this season, as it embodies both fullness and life, as well as decay and death, in the sights and sounds of the cycles of nature. By giving the poem this title, Keats encourages readers to allow themselves to be as moved as he is by the beauty of this season, almost as if it is a love song or an admired person who deserves to be honored.

Keats crafted one of the most well-loved poems on autumn. It is a very sensual poem, with imagery that conjures sounds, tastes, smells, and textures, as well as visuals. The poem is the basis for the titles of the series of very popular "Sandman" graphic novels by Neil Gaiman, the first of which is called "Season of Mists," the first line of Keats's poem. In this way, Gaiman's work is a sort of ode to Keats's poem, which shows the relevance and significance of Keats' work centuries after he lived.

The theme of "To Autumn" is the transitory quality of nature.

In one of the marvelous letters written by Keats to friends, he explained that he composed "To Autumn" because

Somehow a stubble plain looks warm--in the same way that some pictures look warm--this struck me so much on my Sunday's walk, that I composed upon it.

The three stanzas of Keats's ode depict this tempered warmth of Autumn with its own beauty, although like the other seasons it is transitory.

In the first stanza Autumn has "conspired" with Summer, its "close-bosomed friend," a personification with suggests the mating process since fruit is then produced. Then, in the second stanza, the bounty of nature is harvested and Autumn sleeps after all her work, her

hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind....Drowsed with the fume of poppies....

Finally, in the third stanza Keats underscores the importance of the role of Autumn and harvest time: "thou hast thy music too." For, there is a ground choir of gnats that "mourn among the river sallows," along with the robins, grasshopper, and crickets, who sing while the"twittering swallows" gather in the sky. These creatures express the melancholy in delight which Keats often felt. Autumn is the most bountiful of seasons, rich in its fruitfulness and the music of its sounds; however, winter does approach, signaled by the gathering swallows in the skies. Like all seasons and all life, it is temporal.   

In the final stanza of the poem, the speaker describes the song or "music" of autumn. He describes this music as comprising the "wailful choir" of "small gnats mourn[ing]," the bleating of "full-grown lambs," the "treble soft" song of "hedge-crickets," the "whistles" of "red-breast" robins, and the "twitter[ing] of "gathering swallows."

The gnats produce a "wailful choir" to "mourn" for the loss of the summer. Their song is like a funeral song. The implication is thus that their song, and thus the song of autumn, is slow and sad. Added to this, the "bleat[ing]" of the "full-grown lambs" implies a fearful sound, as if the lambs (or sheep as they would be fully grown) are crying out for help. Perhaps they fear the coming winter.

The next addition to the music of autumn is the "treble soft" song of the "hedge-crickets." The fact that the song is "treble soft" ostensibly suggests a more positive, lighter aspect to the music, as the word "treble" indicates the higher range of musical notes. This impression, however, is undercut when we consider that robins typically sing at sunset, as the day is turning into night. The suggestion here is thus the suggestion of an impending darkness, compounding the impression of a music which is mournful and solemn.

The final sound to contribute to the music of autumn is the sound of the "gathering swallows" twittering. This twittering signals a farewell, as the swallows are likely gathering in order to migrate south to escape the winter months. The twittering thus suggests the onset of these winter months and so adds to the somber, solemn tone of the autumnal music.

Can you explain the last two stanzas in Keats' "To Autumn"?

You have a really good answer here already, so I'll just add a few more details.

This poem is an ode, a tribute, like a toast to this season of harvest--"To Autumn."  We expect to hear positive things after hearing that title, and we do.

The imagery in stanza one is of ripeness, of a world ready for harvest:  "fruitfulness," "maturing," "load and bless," "swell," "plump," and "o'er-brimm'd."  Hard to miss this picture of creation as a ripened field ready to harvest.

Stanza two imagery is full of harvest language:  "store," "a granary floor," "winnowing," "a half-reap'd furrow," "hook," "swath,"  "gleaner," "cyder-press," and "oozings."  Clearly this picture is one of a harvest either in progress or completed. These images are still full of life, rather than depicting death or emptiness.

Finally, the third stanza asks us not to think of spring (a time of newness and rebirth) as being better than autumn--traditionally a time before winter and the death/hibernation of all creation, including man.     

"Where are the songs of spring?  Ay, where are they? 
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too."

This is also a beautiful time.  Note the stubble in the harvested field reflecting the glow of a setting sun; the river swallows who perform as a "wailful choir" as they dip and swoop with the breeze; and the lambs and crickets and robins making their familiar sounds.

This poem is a tribute to autumn, rarely seen--in poetry, anyway--as a time of beauty.  While it is a time of reaping what has been sown, metaphorically fall is a precursor to impending death.  The narrator asks us to examine the beauty of this season without any looking ahead to the winter which will inevitably come.

Keats's "To Autumn" is a poem of description and rich imagery; much of the imagery looks to work against the stereotype of autumn as a time of withering and waning (moving toward winter).  As you have already figured out, the first stanza is a straightforward description of nature in autumn--full, lush, and beautiful.

The second stanza of the poem personifies autumn, meaning the speaker describes autumn as if he (or she) were a person.  In this stanza, autumn is portrayed as sleeping, either on a granary floor (a storage unit for storing grain), on the rows he is harvesting, or by a cider-press.  The notion that autumn is sleeping continues the motif of heavy fullness evident in the first stanza.  In addition, the places where autumn sleeps are places usually associated with autumn, such as places of harvest and apple-picking.  Significantly, autumn is also portrayed as a "gleaner," which is a worker who harvests crops, again emphasizing the fullness and lushness of autumn.

The third stanza begins by comparing autumn to spring; the speaker seems to suggest that many would prefer spring to autumn, but that they are mistaken, as autumn has it's own unique beauty ("thou hast thy music too").  While the other stanzas used visual imagery to portray autumn, this uses auditory imagery.  In listing the "songs" of autumn, Keats is describing all the sounds that characterize the season, such as the bleating of sheep and the singing swallows.

How does John Keats create vivid imagery in "To Autumn"?

The poem “To Autumn” employs words that evoke the five senses, including sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch. Keats cleverly and creatively empowers these sense through his use of specific words and expressions. By reading closely, one can sense and truly understand the meaning behind John Keats' work "To Autumn."

Here are some examples of those words and expressions:

Sight: "rosy hue" (line 26), "maturing sun" (line 2), "barred clouds bloom" (line 25)

Sound: "songs of spring" (line 23), "wailful choir small gnats mourn" (line 27), "lambs loud bleat" (line 30), "hedge crickets sing" (line 31), "red breast whistles" (line 32), "swallows twitter" (line 33)

Taste: "fruit with ripeness to the core" (line 6), "plump" (line 7), "sweet kernel" (line 8), "oozings" (line 21)

Smell: "fume of poppies" (line 17), "later flower for the bees" (line 9)

Touch: "season of mists" (line 1), "warm days" (line 10), "hair soft lifted by winnowing wind" (line 15), "light wind lives or dies" (line 29)

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."

What are the themes in John Keats's poem "To Autumn" and why does he use nature-based imagery and motifs?

In a letter to a friend named Reynolds, Keats explained that he composed "To Autumn" because

Somehow a stubble plain looks warm--in the same way that some pictures look warm--this struck me so much on my sunday's [sic] walk, that I composed upon it.

"To Autumn," the " perfect embodiment of poetic form, intent, and effect," is an ode, a serious and dignified lyric poem that adheres to a stanzaic form and is fairly long.  Keats's ode is divided into three eleven-line stanzas with the rhyme scheme of abab  cdecdde.  Autumn is personified by Keats, and he employs apostrophe, addressing Autumn as a woman:

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?..../thee sitting careless on a granary floor,/Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind/....And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep/Steady thy laden head across a brook/Or by a cider-press, with patient look,/Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

There is splendid imagery in this ode.  The "mellow fruitfulness" of the vines and apples, the "mossed cottage-trees," the "plump hazel shells," and "sweet kernel" along with "fume of poppies" suggest the sights and smells of the harvest of fall. In the third stanza as autumn nears its end, the "barred clouds bloom" and "touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue" while gnats mourn "in a wailful choir."  Other sound imagery is found in the bleating of the lambs, the singing of the crickes, the whistling of the "red-breast," and the twittering of the swallows. 

As the stanzas are arranged in the order of the progression of the season of autumn. The first stanza describes the early stages of the season with images of fruit ripening, the "maturing sun," the gourds, the vines, and the hazel nuts all ripen. In the second stanza, the ripening process of the fruit is complete and the fruit is stored as Autumn falls asleep.  But, she awakens to watch "the last oozings [of the cider-press] hours by hours.  It is as if Autumn wishes to capture Time and halt the coming of Winter. Here Keats expresses the theme of the transience of time.  Finally, in the third stanza, winter approaches.  When Keats asks Autumn

Where are the songs of spring?.../Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,--

he suggests that Autumn has her own beauty, albeit a passing beauty [theme].  And, again, the theme of the transience of time is implicit in the third stanza as Autum comes to completion:

Thn in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn/Among the river sallows, borne aloft/Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;...The red -breast whistles from a garden-croft; And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

How does Keats embody complex themes in the seemingly simple poem "To Autumn"?

This ode is about a moment in time but it also is about change and transformation. Therefore, time is a significant theme here. Consider the first two lines: 

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, 

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; 

Autumn is the season when the warm weather is turning cold. This produces condensation and "mist." Autumn is the end of the growing season. It is the season when farmers harvest their crops. Ideally, the harvest is bursting with "fruitfulness." Thus, it is a time when things are ripe and full of life.

Keats is also making a comparison between the progression of seasons and the progression of the day. Spring is morning and rebirth, Summer is the bulk of the day and growth, Autumn is evening and harvest, Winter is night and death. Here, Keats is comparing autumn to the evening. Thus, autumn is a close friend of the "maturing sun" or the sun as it sets at the end of the day. 

Although notions of evening, the end of growth, and the approaching winter might be described in melancholy terms, Keats celebrates autumn for its particular beauty. The first stanza contains imagery of fruits and plants fully ripe and therefore at their peak conditions. Despite the approaching end of things that upcoming winter represents, autumn is a beautiful time and notion in and of itself. 

The second stanza illustrates ideas about the harvest. Keats describes autumn as "the gleaner." That is, one who gathers the grain. Given the suggested notions of evening at maturing age, he also seems to be saying that autumn is a time for gathering the fruits of our life's labor. It is therefore a time to gather, appreciate, and extract from life whatever we can. Perhaps he is suggesting that as we get older, we should appreciate (gather/glean) life especially in these later stages. 

In the final stanza, the speaker (Keats) basically tells Autumn not to worry about the songs of spring. Autumn has its own songs. In other words, this season, the evening, and the mature stage of life all have elements to be celebrated. This poem is about appreciating autumn as a season. But the symbolism provokes the reader to consider the passage of time in order to appreciate the end of the day and the end stages or the penultimate times of life. 

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

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. 

What makes Keats' depiction of autumn in "To Autumn" stanzas 1 & 2 powerful?

The first two stanzas are powerful because of their rich, luxuriant imagery, describing autumn's bounty in ways we can see, smell and sense. Autumn is depicted or personified as a human being who "conspires" with the sun to produce a growing bounty of food. Keats, in this stanza, emphasizes autumn not as a period of loss or decline but instead focuses on the abundance  of the harvest, using powerful descriptive language: 

To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees, 

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells 

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells 

We can visualize this scene: apple trees by a cottage, moss around their trunks, their branches bending towards earth under the weight of so many apples. We can see the gourd and the hazel nuts. The stanza moves slowly, encouraging us to slow down too and dwell on the language, which builds its rhythm through devices such as alliteration or using words that start with the same letter, such as "mists," "mellow," and "maturing."

In the second stanza, Keats continues the rich descriptive imagery, here introducing smells: "the fume of poppies" and a sense that all this abundance makes Autumn drowsy, like a person who has just eaten a big feast. In this stanza we also feel the slow rhythms of Autumn, weighted down by its abundance. Now we are getting a sense of the slowing pace of the season. Autumn watches the "last oozings, hours by hours" of the cider press.

Keats loved to celebrate beauty, and does so here, capturing the slow, rich abundance of fall.

What might have motivated Keats to write "To Autumn"?

In "To Autumn," Keats seems to be driven by an affinity for the autumn season, wanting to sing its praises and to help the reader see that autumn is worth being appreciated as much as spring. Though the fall season anticipates the coming of winter and often brings a premature cold to lie "on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep," it also has its pleasures. In the first stanza, the speaker talks of all the ripening fruit and the products of the harvest, and in the second, he mentions the cool, crisp weather and making apple cider. Rarely does he say these things outright, however—he uses imagery and metaphor to lend the autumn a more poetic feel.

In the third stanza, Keats writes, "Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they? / Think not of them, thou hast thy music too." He then goes on to list the sources of the "music" of the season: the bleating of lambs, the chirping of crickets, the "rosy hue" of the sun on the fields, the song of robins, and so on. Though he is addressing autumn, with these lines he is urging the reader to stop and appreciate fall and all that comes with it instead of wishing for warm weather right away.

This motivation is apparent in the structure of "To Autumn," as well. The poem is an ode—a song of praise—and Keats makes use of apostrophe, speaking directly to the fall season. This personifies the autumn and allows the reader to more readily "sympathize" with the season, so to speak, and appreciate its characteristics by relating them to more familiar actions, as when it is "conspiring" with the sun "to load and bless / With fruit the vines."