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To Autumn

by habituallychic

09 . 19 . 09

I saw the movie Bright Star today which coincidentally happened to be exactly 190 years to the day after John Keats wrote To Autumn. So I can’t think of a better way to salute the film, the poet and the change of season than to post the poem in it’s entirety.

To Autumn

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.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
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;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

– John Keats, 19 September 1819

10 Comments
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  1. Ali September 20, 2009 | 2:44 am

    LOVE Keats and looking forward to this movie… just heard about it!

  2. style chronicle September 20, 2009 | 2:54 am

    Can’t wait to see this film. It is getting rave reviews and I love Keats! Such a brilliant poet.

  3. drey September 20, 2009 | 7:19 am

    oooh i love this poem by Keats. I like all his poems 🙂 How gorgeous

  4. Tee of Dragonfly Cottage September 20, 2009 | 8:22 am

    ahhh…. Love the poem… I didnt know about the flick, but now I cant wait to see it 🙂

  5. Blue September 20, 2009 | 1:58 pm

    Probably shall not see the movie but really like the poem. Ode to Autumn of my favorites as is “Ode a Grecian Urn” – had to do them in high school at the same time as Jane Austen and was turned on to a lifetime of pleasurable reading.

  6. Tippy September 20, 2009 | 5:22 pm

    I cannot wait to see this movie. I love British period films and adore the actor who plays Keats. He was the only good thing about Brideshead Revisited.

  7. A Gift Wrapped Life September 20, 2009 | 5:31 pm

    This sounds like a fabulous period movie…..my favorite kind, yet it will likely be months before it makes it here. Thanks for the heads-up and the poem is lovely. I am impressed that you typed it out, that couldn’t have been easy!

  8. Lise M September 20, 2009 | 6:02 pm

    Hi Heather,

    Thanks for sharing this! Can’t wait to see the movie. By the way I just found your blog and I think it’s just awesome! Will add you to my link list.

    Have a lovely evening.

    Kind Regards,

    Lise M.
    http://www.urbanstylevibes.com

  9. Style Odyssey September 20, 2009 | 7:47 pm

    i look forward to seeing this movie, at some future visit to the US (no cinemas or movies where i live).
    thank you for sharing that poem about autumn, my favorite season.

  10. Tina Steele Lindsey September 20, 2009 | 10:09 pm

    ~ so beautiful ~