Ode to Autumn

Ode to Autumn by John Keats

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-eaves run;
To bend with apples the mossed 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'erbrimmed 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-reaped furrow sound asleep,
Drowsed 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 cider-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 redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Yesterday, Sunday, my boyfriend and I went for a walk through the gardens and bush surrounding the Eastern suburbs here in Sydney. I can't tell you what a glorious day it was! I couldn't stop thinking of Keats' "Ode to Autumn" as I was walking along. Apparently he wrote a letter to a friend after taking a Sunday walk in September of 1819 and said how lovely Autumn was and how much more he preferred it was to "chilly" Spring. This Sunday walk inspired "Ode to Autumn".

In other news, there is a fabulous print give away of my work over at Lilly's Life!

Have a lovely rest of your Spring weekend Northern Hemisphere - ians and enjoy your Autumn week you folk down South!

Comments

[lilly]

Those pictures are gorgeous, particularly that first one. Wow the colours!! I love Autumn too. How sad am I, I even have an Autumn song, Autumn leaves by the late Eva Cassidy.

Thanks for the link to the Giveaway, I am excited!! I hope your readers come on over and enter.

[Gabbi]

Your fall leaves are beautiful and so is Keats poem of course :) I'm on my way to enter the giveaway... I also put wanted to tell you that I used one of your prints on a post today? I hope you don't mind???

[Sam]

Thank you Lilly - I popped in to have a look at the comments so far! I mustn't let them go to my head!

Of course Gabbi! It would be an absolute honour to have my drawing on your post today!! :)

[Jacqueline]

Those are gorgeous pictures and oh my im loving the colors lots! And such a lovely peom! Thank you for the link to the wonderful giveaway! Have a lovely week ahead and love to you!

[Michiko]

Autumn is my favorite season too :)
What incredible colours...

It still feels odd to know you are enjoying Autumn over there while we are looking forward to Summer here lol