Student Question
What are some archaic words used by Keats in "Ode to Autumn"?
Quick answer:
In "Ode to Autumn," Keats employs several archaic words, primarily pronouns and verb forms, to evoke a historical tone. These include "thee," "thy," and "thou," which were not used in everyday speech even in Keats's time but were common in poetry. Verb forms like "watchest" and "dost" also appear, reflecting outdated second-person singular conjugations. These archaisms align Keats with admired past writers and enhance the poem's timeless quality.
First, let's differentiate the differences between archaic words and uncommon words and uncommon usage of words. These are three different things though they may be confused with each other. Archaic words are those that have actually gone out of usage, whereas once they were in common everyday use, and are definitive of another era or time period; they are antiquated.
(1) One way to recognize them is to notice suffixes that
are unusual. (2) Another way to find them is to look up suffixes (like
-est or -st) in the dictionary; if archaic, the entry will
read something like "forming the archaic." (3) Another way is to look up whole
words, like "eke." the dictionary entry will say something
like: "eke adv. Archaic: Also" (Collins English
Dictionary)
Uncommon words are words that are still current but have faded in prominence and are rarely used or...
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heard.Uncommon usage of
words generally reflects the application of various rhetorical word
schemes to render usage striking and unusual.
In Keats' poem, some of the archaic words are pronouns while
others are verb tenses or derivations that are no longer a functional part of
contemporary English. The pronouns are thee, thy, thou. Second person
formal pronoun is represented by "thee," used to address a
person of high rank, for example a minister or a mayor or your teacher. Second
person casual is represented by "thou," used to address
persons of your own rank or lower, for example, friends and siblings; it is
also used from adults to children. The possessive of second person is
"thy." It expresses posses ion in various senses: e.g., "It is
thy turn to go"; "It is thy rudeness that hurt him"; "Will thou have thy
chocolate cake now?"
Word tense (time orientation) usage is represented by archaic
watchest and hast. Second person
singular past and present tense is expressed in "watchest";
-est indicates something occurring in the past or
present moment in second person thee/thou and can be combined with a
modal to indicate future time as in "Thou must watchest the roast in the oven
for me." Other examples are "Did thou watchest Monday's football game?" (past);
"Please watchest thy step!" (present). Second person singular past, present and
future combination may also be expressed in "thou hast," which signifies the
same as "you have."
Some uncommon words in the poem that are not archaic
are garden-croft, bourn, laden, drowsed.
- garden-croft: Scottish; a small enclosed bit of land near a house used for a garden
- bourn: English; small stream
- laden: English; to be loaded down as with a heavy burden to carry
- drowsed: English; past tense of drowse, as in to be half-asleep
Some instances of uncommon usage are "seeks abroad," meaning to look far and wide; "think not of them," signifying "do not think of them"; "lambs loud bleat," which is a word scheme that rearranges "loud the lambs bleat" for poetic effect; and "drowsed with fume," which uses a word scheme that shortens the word "perfume" and signifies "made sleepy with perfume."
What archaic words does Keats use in "Ode to Autumn"?
Archaic words are those that are no longer in common use or have lost their original meaning, yet can still be used to lend a certain historical tone to works of creative writing. There are a number of such examples in "To Autumn." Keats uses them mainly to establish a connection between himself and those writers of the past he so much admires such as Shakespeare and Spenser. The timelessness of the poem's subject matter also makes the use of archaic words legitimate, rather than simply an exercise in affectation or contrivance.
Who hath not seen theeoft amid thy store?
"Thee," "thy," and "thou" crop up quite a lot in "To Autumn." Such archaisms were still quite commonly used by poets in Keats's day, although Wordsworth and Coleridge challenged this convention in their "Lyrical Ballads." Nevertheless, they were not used in everyday speech or normal conversation.
Thouwatchest the last oozings hours by hours.
Nowadays, we'd say "You watch..." so this is another example of archaic words, as is the following:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep...
In current usage we'd say "You do keep," or more commonly, simply "You keep."
References