Jackson Richardson
02-21-2018, 04:06 PM
I have been trying to learn some well-known poems by heart partly to learn to appreciate them better. And I was delighted to get to know Kubla Khan in this way.
I am now learning Keats’ Ode to Autumn. The first and last stanza are both wonderful, but I am struggling with the second stanza, and I am beginning to suspect the problem is that young Johnny Keats was not keeping his eye on the ball. I find it difficult to imagine the personification of Autumn throughout the stanza, but the two images in the centre are particularly problematic.
First of all we have:
Or on a half reaped furrow sound asleep
Drowsed with the fume of poppies.
I mean come off it. In order to fall sound asleep on a half reaped furrow you need at least a full anaesthetic. And what aspect of Autumn does it refer to?
Then:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook.
What is the image in the first place? Someone wading through a brook with something on their head? Do gleaners do that? And what on earth does it say about autumn?
Jackson
I am now learning Keats’ Ode to Autumn. The first and last stanza are both wonderful, but I am struggling with the second stanza, and I am beginning to suspect the problem is that young Johnny Keats was not keeping his eye on the ball. I find it difficult to imagine the personification of Autumn throughout the stanza, but the two images in the centre are particularly problematic.
First of all we have:
Or on a half reaped furrow sound asleep
Drowsed with the fume of poppies.
I mean come off it. In order to fall sound asleep on a half reaped furrow you need at least a full anaesthetic. And what aspect of Autumn does it refer to?
Then:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook.
What is the image in the first place? Someone wading through a brook with something on their head? Do gleaners do that? And what on earth does it say about autumn?
Jackson