Impermanent of nature is well illustrated in ‘Ode to Autumn’

In the following lines, I would like to analyze how the poet, John Keats portrays the “impermanent of nature” in his poem “Ode to autumn”. Ode generally refers to 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 and also it is a poem meant to be sung”.

“Ode to autumn” shows the maturity of the poetic career of John Keats. It is believed that this is the last poem of his life. The poet died after one year of writing this poem. So, the poet tries to embed the thought of “impermanent of nature and life” in his last poem as he knew that he want to stop writing after this. This very thought is clearly portrayed in his sonnet “When I have fears” as well. The poet initiates the sonnet with the following lines.

When I have fears that I may cease to be 
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;

 

When we have a glance over the ode superficially, we can understand that the ode comprises of three stanzas. In the first stanza the poet deals with the fruitfulness and the maturity of autumn. In the second stanza he speaks about the mid autumn and the yields of it through personifying the autumn. In the last stanza he epics the twilight moment of the autumn and the beginning of spring with an ample use of audible imageries. So, the poet proposes the idea of impermanent of nature by stating the stages of autumn as it can be seen outwardly.

When we go deeply into the ode, it’s peculiar that the Impermanent of nature is stated in the very first line of the ode. The poet starts the ode with “The season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”. The word “Mist” shows the impermanent clearly, because the mist vanishes when the sun appears. Through that the poet proposes the idea of impermanent at the beginning of the ode.

In this short poem, the first stanza shows the ripeness and fruitfulness of autumn as the summer ended, the ending of summer gives birth to the autumn. The death of summer gives birth to the new born baby “autumn”. During the summer people went outings and the sunny days gave them a way to enjoy the life in the way it can be enjoyed. But now the summer is not there. The only thing they can see is the autumn and its bounties. None can wish to have the summer throughout the year, because it is not eternal. It has to end and the other season has to arrive, because the nature and season are transient. They are not everlasting. 

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

In the above lines the poet states that the bees assume that the warm day will never come and this season will not cease. They are enjoying the “Sweet Kernel” of the flowers. They have ample of flowers to get the honey from. So, they are in the imagination of everlasting autumn, but the poet implies a thought in these lines that the bees are in delusion. They wish to have the autumn forever, but it is passing. When the time comes, it has to keep going and leave the way to the upcoming one.  

In the second stanza, the poet passes his concentration to the harvesting and the activities in mid autumn. Mid autumn is the time of harvesting. Through personification the poet describes the autumn. The autumn is personified as the harvester, reaper, gleaner, and watcher of cyder-press. All the above mentioned works are under taken by the farmers in the mid autumn. The farmers harvest their paddy fields, they reap them, people glean and collect the left over, and they make juices from the fruits. While doing all these things they are rarely admired by the nature and autumn as they are very busy with their works. In the second stanza the poet put forward the idea that the autumn has done its part. It has given its yield to the people. The people harvested their paddy fields and they have kept them in safe places. Now it is the time for the autumn to depart, because someone is going to be present here and occupy the place of autumn.

“Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,

thou watchest the last oozing hours”

The phrase “oozing hours” suggests as if the autumn is waiting patiently for the arrival of the winter. 

In the last stanza, there are many words and phrases which are related to death can be found, Such as soft-dying day, wailful choir, mourn, and wind lives and dies. All these words and phrases suggest the death, because death gives an end to the life. Death shows the fidelity and impermanent of life. The poet takes these words to describe the twilight moment of the autumn. Through the use of these words and phrases the poet shows the impermanent of autumn. It gives the idea that the autumn is going to leave the place, while making the creatures to yearn for that. 

Moreover! The "barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day," and "the light wind lives or dies" give premonition of mortality of the nature. It says that the day is dying and the gnats, lambs, crickets, and birds all seem to be aware of the approaching darkness. The "full-grown lambs" bleat as they understand their destiny, because the full-grown lambs are slaughtered at the end of the autumn. All these sounds are portrayed as the mourning of the creatures for the departure of the autumn. On the other hand it can be considered as the farewell of the creatures for the autumn and the premonition of them for the upcoming season.

On the other hand! The autumn will be followed by the cold and barrenness of winter, winter will in turn give way to a fresh spring. The seasons pass, the nature is impermanent. When the summer passes autumn falls, when autumn leaves the winter falls. In a nutshell the nature is not permanent. It is always moving. It will not be stable.

Apart from that, the poet says that all the seasons have their good and bad. This is implicitly conveyed with wonderful effect in the very last line of the ode. “and gathering swallows twitter in the skies” in one way the line gives a premonition of the coming winter, for the swallows are gathering in preparation to migrate to warmer climes. Yet we remember that migratory birds return when the cold weather ends, so that the very hint of their impending departure carries with it an implied suggestion of their reappearance when warm days come again. 

To sum up! “Ode to autumn” is a short poem written by a Romantic poet John Keats in his last few days of life. He wrote this poem when he walked the English countryside in the autumn of 1819. He was admired by the beauty of nature.  He suggests the impermanent of nature in the poetic lines through fine division of stanzas and stating the stages of autumn in them vividly. This ode is a clear illustration for the impermanent of nature.