Mellow as Keats

Published on by Laura Bloomsbury

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;

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
   With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

   Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
   Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;

   Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
   Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

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

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
   And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Extract from Keat’s ode “To Autumn” – so predictable a choice yet still such a superb summation especially on a warm October day when I took this walk this week to clear my head and be thankful for all these bounties

14 thoughts on “Mellow as Keats”

  3. Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they?
    Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
    I liked those lines especially. And the pictures present a casual ordinary vision, of the kind where “ordinary” is hearth & home, an intimacy of residence with the earth. Good to see.

Comments are closed.