of the birds and grasshoppers and crickets. These have a beauty that compares to poetry, Keats asserts.

The birds and insects are also personified in this poem (i.e., given human characteristics and actions). The birds grow faint in the heat and hide in the trees. The grasshopper "takes the lead" in the song or poetry of nature. He delights in the fun he has during the hot days and then rests in the weeds when he gets tired. The cricket sings in the winter to continue the poetry and music. Even the frost is personified, as it "Has wrought a silence" in the winter.

Notice, too, the vivid sensory details Keats provides. We can picture the "cooling trees" and the "new-mown mead" as well as the "summer luxury" and the "lone winter evening" in which someone dozes near the fire.

Keats adds some linguistic fun as well with alliteration in phrases like "new-mown mead" (the repetition of m) and lines like "Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills" (with its s alliteration). He even incorporates synecdoche (in which a part represents the whole) when he speaks of a voice running through the hedges. This voice stands for the whole grasshopper, but it is a fitting device, for we hear the little insect rather than see it.

In the opening line of the poem, Keats uses metonymy when he writes that "The Poetry of the earth is never dead." Metonymy is a poetic device whereby the name of something is replaced by a different word that represents that same something in a symbolic way. In the example in the opening line of this poem, the word poetry is used as a replacement for the word life. The meaning of the line is that the life of the earth never dies, but by using the word poetry instead of life, Keats suggests that that life is beautiful, musical, intricate, and creative.

Throughout the poem, Keats uses juxtaposition to emphasize the point that the life or "poetry" of the earth continues at all times, through all seasons and climates. For example, in the second and third lines of the poem, Keats says that this life endures during "the hot sun" as well as in the "cooling trees." Later in the poem, he writes that the life of the earth endures "in summer luxury" and also in "lone winter evening[s]." The juxtaposition here emphasizes how robust and indefatigable is the life that pulses through the earth.

To further emphasize the same point, Keats also uses repetition. For example, he says that the pulse of life will "run/ From hedge to hedge," and he also uses the word never three times in the poem. In the first line, he writes that the life of the earth is "never dead"; in the sixth line, he writes that this life is "never done"; and in the ninth line, he says that it is "ceasing never."

Poetic devices are the same as literary devices plus the addition of some structural features that are specific to poetry. Some structural features follow: "On the Grasshopper and the Cricket" is a fourteen line sonnet with a rhyme scheme of a b b a a b b a  c d e c d e with no end couplet making it a Petrarchan sonnet instead of a Shakespearean sonnet.

The rhythm is in iambs ( ^ / ) for five feet of repeating patterns: it is in iambic pentameter. The sonnet structure is an octave of eight non-alternating lines and six ending lines comprising a sestet. There are voltas (turns in topic) at lines 5 and 9 where the topics turn from the general voice of the poetry of nature to the specific voice of the grasshopper (5) and the from the grasshopper to a comparison of the cricket in winter to the grasshopper of summer.

Some poetic devices classed as techniques used by Keats follow: The poem is based upon a double metaphor in which the poetry of earth is compare to the grasshopper and the cricket is compared to the grasshopper. Keats also employs personification (e.g., "he rests at ease," "frost has wrought") and sensory imagery (e.g., "voice will run from hedge to hedge").

Keats also uses the figures of speech that are word schemes, which manipulate sounds, letters, syntax and words to create rhetorical effects. He uses anastrophe, a type of hyperbaton, that places the adjective on the wrong side of the noun (e.g., "ceasing never," "warmth increasing ever"). He also uses the type of hyperbaton called apocope in which the word-final letters or syllables are dropped for effect or to fit a meter. An example is "lone winter evening" in which the -ly is dropped from lonely to create lone.

Imagery is a description of sensory experience; as such, it can be visual (describing something we could see), auditory (describing something we could hear), olfactory (describing something we could smell), tactile (describing something we could touch or feel), or gustatory (describing something we could taste). One image used in the poem describes how

all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in the cooling trees . . .

This is both visual and tactile, as we can see how the birds in the trees would look and feel the heat of the sun and the cooling shade of the trees. Another visual image describes the grasshopper, who "rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed." It is not hard to imagine the sight of this still grasshopper, sheltering beneath some pretty green plant. Another set of images describes a colder season:

On a lone winter evening, when the frost
Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills
The Cricket's song . . .

We can see the frosty winter scene and hear the total lack of sound and, then, the "shrill" chirping of the cricket.

Imagery is the use of sensory details to create an image in the reader’s mind.  Sensory details are descriptions that involve the five senses of sound, smell, touch, taste and vision.  This poem includes several sensory details.  Many of them are related to heat, which is touch.  For example, line 2-4:

When all the birds are faint with the hot sun

And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run

From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;

Hot sun and cooling trees are contrasting images.  New-mown mead is another.  Note that there will be many sensory details in a poem describing nature.  Picture it in your head, and explore it through your senses.

The major piece of imagery to focus on is the way that the two lines which introduce the two sections of this short poem suggest the theme of what Keats is trying to convey. The poem begins with the line:

The poetry of earth is never dead

Roughly in the middle of the poem, the second section of the poem is introduced with the following line:

The poetry of earth is ceasing never

These two lines indicate the message of the poem and capture the imagery of what Keats is trying to convey. The music of nature is characterised in the image of "the poetry of earth" and the role of the grasshopper and the cricket in ensuring that, even when all of nature is quiet, that poetry still continues is highlighted and praised. For the grasshopper, even when it is so hot that the birds are hiding in "cooling trees," sings out and "has never done / With his delights." The cricket sings out earth's poetry even on winter nights "when the frost / has wrought a silence." Thus nature conspires to perpetuate the poetry of earth no matter how inhospitable the situation.

The meaning of Keats' poem "On the Grasshopper and Cricket" and the reason he particularly chooses the grasshopper and the cricket derives from the opening line ("The poetry of earth is never dead") and is mirrored in the ninth line ("The poetry of earth is ceasing never"). Composed in one octave (eight lines) and one sestet (six lines) and having the rhyme scheme abbaabba (octave) cdecde (sestet) without an ending couplet, this poem is structured as a Petrarchan sonnet of fourteen lines. In the Petrarchan sonnet, the ninth line turns the poem to a new subject matter in what is called the sonnet volta; all sonnets require a change of subject matter to usher in the resolution to the problem or idea introduced in the first eight lines.

In this poem the ninth line volta repeats the first line with a variation and turns the subject from summer and the grasshopper to winter and the cricket. In Keats' poetic imagination, imagery and vision, these two small creatures are the voices of nature--which is often commemorated in Romantic period poetry--one speaking in summer when all else is "faint with the hot sun" and quiet "in cooling trees" and the other speaking in winter when "the frost has brought silence" except for "The Cricket's song" from "the stove." Keats' is praising these two small yet insistent voices of nature that are never silent even when all else is and that have the power to make summer seem to spring from frozen winter. In other words, Keats specifically uses the grasshopper and cricket because they are the voices of nature that continue when all other voices in their season are stilled.

Keats' thesis is that "the poetry of the earth is never dead," and most people read the poem as a celebration of the enduring beauty of nature. However, upon closer inspection, it is clear that the poem is concerned specifically with sound. It is the grasshopper's voice that "takes the lead" in celebrating summer after the birds have fallen silent; similarly, it is the cricket's song that "in warmth increasing ever" enlivens the otherwise silent winter night. Of course, there is a direct connection between the songs of these insects and Keats' own "song," his poetry, which he hopes will persist in the same way.

Your essay could state this theme in the introduction, then consider, in separate paragraphs:

• the imagery of silence (the hot fields, the frosty night)
• the voices of the insects, and singing as an expression of joy
• the idea of persistence, and images that suggest the permanence of nature

I would end by considering carefully the final two lines of the poem: How does the drowsiness of the poet, who mistakes the song of the cricket for that of the grasshopper, relate to the idea of the "never dead" poetry of the earth? How does this final image suggest, perhaps, a poetic process?

Good luck!

I suggest choosing a theme from the poem and writing an essay explaining how imagery supports this theme.  I would suggest three uses of imagery.  Here is an example theses:  In “On the Grasshopper and the Cricket” Keats expresses the idea of nature’s unending beauty through imagery of warmth, renewal and joy.  I would outline the essay this way:

1.  Introduction (use the thesis I gave you)
2. Warmth Imagery: “the birds are faint with the hot sun” (2), “That is the Grasshopper's--he takes the lead/In summer luxury” (5-6), “from the stove there shrills/The Cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever” (12-13)
3. Renewal Imagery: “The poetry of earth is never dead” (1), “And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run/From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead” (3-4)
4. Joy Imagery: “he has never done/With his delights; for when tired out with fun/He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed” (6-8)
   
5. Conclusion (restate thesis)

The John Keats poem "On the Grasshopper and Cricket," features metaphor that compares poetry to the songs of the grasshopper and the cricket. Specifically, the songs of the grasshopper and the cricket are the "poetry of earth."

In his sonnet, the grasshopper's song keeps poetry alive in the summer (the first eight lines), and the cricket's song keeps poetry alive in the winter (the final six lines). The songs are united, though, as is the poem, then, in the final three lines:

The Cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever,

And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,

The Grasshopper's among some grassy hills.

The cricket's song heard in winter seems to be the grasshopper's heard in summer.

Unity is created in the poem by the extended metaphor, the songs of the insects, the juxtaposition of summer and winter, and the uniting of the songs and the seasons in the final three lines of the poem.

This poem primarily conveys the beauty of nature by evoking the rich sounds that form, in the words of the poem, "the poetry of earth." Note hwo the poem can be divided into two sections, both of which start with an assertion that "the poetry of earth" is "never dead" and "ceasing never." Each section focuses on how the grasshopper and then the cricket both serve to contribute to this beauty of nature whilst all other forms of nature are silent.

The Grasshopper is "never done / With his delights" and "takes the lead / In summer luxury." Whlst all birds are tired from the heat, the Grasshopper continues his sound, rejoicing in the beauty of spring. The Cricket, likewise, seems to serve the same function as the Grasshopper, but in winter. Even when the harshest frost has created silence, the Cricket begins his song, "in warmth increasing ever." The Grasshopper and the Cricket are thus presented as a pair, working together, the Cricket carrying on when the Grasshopper leaves off, both ensuring that the "poetry of the earth" truly never halts.

In the opening line of the poem, "The Poetry of earth is never dead," the speaker implies that there is beauty and melody in the rhythms of the natural world. These rhythms continue throughout the changing seasons, and never die.

In the next four lines the speaker says that even when the birds stop singing, because they are "faint with the hot sun" and hiding "in cooling trees," the chirping of the grasshoppers will take their place, and keep alive the aforementioned "Poetry of the earth." In the fourth line of the poem the speaker says that the grasshoppers will move "from hedge to hedge," chirping all the time.

In lines six to eight of the poem, the speaker says that in the summer, or "in summer luxury," the grasshopper is "never done," meaning that while it is summer the grasshopper will always chirp. In lines seven and eight the speaker says that when the grasshopper is finally "tired out" it will rest "at ease beneath some pleasant weed." At this moment it may seem as if the music or "Poetry" of the earth stops while the grasshopper rests.

In the next section of the poem, lines nine to twelve, the speaker reassures us that although the grasshopper rests, the "Poetry of earth" continues, and is "ceasing never." In lines ten to twelve the speaker indicates that in the "winter," when there is "frost" and "silence," the "Poetry of earth" is taken up by "the Cricket's song." The speaker also says, in line twelve, that the song of the cricket is a source of warmth ("warmth increasing ever") in the cold winter months.

In the final two lines of the poem, lines thirteen and fourteen, the speaker says that the song of the cricket seems to merge with the song of the grasshopper. Indeed the song of the cricket in the cold winter reminds the speaker of "the Grasshopper's among some grassy hills." In other words the song of the cricket in winter reminds the speaker of the grasshopper's song in the summer.