The years between 1818 and 1821 mark the final stage in John Keat’s life. During this time period, Keats created some of his best poetry. These works would forever elevate Keats as a brilliant and talented poet whose mark would be left on the literary world forever. The last years of Keat’s life were met with many challenges as well as inspirations. It was a combination of these which not only influenced, but inspired Keats to write such poems as, "The Eve of St. Agnes," "Lamia," "The Fall of Hyperion," and "To Autumn." "To Autumn" exemplifies maturity, resolution, perfection, and unification of a poem, a season, a day, and a poet.

John Keats was born on October 31, 1795, on the northern outskirts of London. In 1804, his father was thrown from a horse and died of a skull fracture. The following year, Keat’s grandfather died. It was also about this time that his mother disappeared from her children’s lives, leaving them to be raised by their grandmother. Three years later, in 1808, she reappeared ill with tuberculosis. In 1810 she died. Watching his mother die had a very strong impact on Keats. It may have influenced his decision to become a doctor. In 1811, at the age of sixteen, he became an apprentice to a Dr. Hammond. It was also at this time that Keats was handed a copy of Spenser’s "Faerie Queen" by his friend and tutor, Cowden Clarke (Nylander). Keats became extremely interested in poetry.

By 1816, Keats was working in Guy’s hospital in London as an apothecary and surgeon. Still, he continued to be drawn to poetry. In 1817, he was introduced to Leigh Hunt, a young journalist and poet who had a profound influence on his life. During the year of 1818, Keats and his friend Charles Brown went on a walking tour of Scotland. A year later Keats gave up medicine. In the fall of this same year, Keat’s younger brother died of tuberculosis. This indeed exposed the young poet to the dreaded disease. Also, at this time, he met the love of his life, Fanny Brawne. By 1819, Keats was already showing signs of the dreaded disease, tuberculosis. He suffered a hemorrhage of his lungs but recovered. It was during this time period, near the end of his life, that Keats created some of his best poetry which put him among the great English poets. He wrote, "Ode to Psyche," "Ode to Melancholy," "Ode on a Grecian Urn," "Ode on Indolence," "The Eve of St. Agnes," "Lamia," and what is considered by many to be his most perfect poem, "To Autumn" (Nylander). By 1820, Keats moved in with his friend, Leigh Hunt, after suffering a hemorrhage. On the advice of his doctor he set sail for Italy, a trip often taken as a last resort when one was stricken with tuberculosis. He died peacefully in 1821 in Rome at the age of only twenty-four.

"To Autumn" is often referred to as an Ode. It was written on a Sunday afternoon in 1819. It was the last poem that Keats ever wrote. It is his most perfection. At a time in Keat’s life when he knew he was not long for the physical world, it is ironic that he produced a poem of such perfection. To fully comprehend the beauty of this irony, one must be aware of the summation of
his poetic maturity epitomized in "To Autumn," and the reluctant acceptance of his impending death. These essential aspects are apparent in his poem, "To Autumn" (Forman 14-16). As his own life drew to a conclusion, his poetry had reached a most eloquent finale. The maturity of man and poet bid adieu in an inextricable bond. This has given us his legacy.

Keat’s most productive years may be noted first in the summer of 1818. Keats had gone on a walking tour in the Lake District of England and on to Scotland. It was here that the first symptoms of tuberculosis began to appear. The tour required walking 20 miles or more each day. His time spent among the elements may have awakened a part of him to nature which enhanced
his senses in writing "To Autumn"(Forman 15-16).

Upon returning from his tour, he was faced with bitter criticism of several of his earlier poems and "Endymion." It was also a very difficult time for Keats as Tom, his younger brother, was dying of tuberculosis. Meeting Fanny Brawne was certainly a positive influence on Keats. He fell hopelessly in love with her. She was a generous and kind woman. Unfortunately, his failing health and uncertain material situation made it difficult for their relationship to take a normal course (Forman 16-17).

In 1819, while living in Winchester, England, Keats would often take a long walk about an hour before dinner. He admired the beautiful, English countryside. Inspired by the season he composed "To Autumn." It is a unique poem which touches many different levels. It is not unusual that each generation has found it to be a nearly perfect poem. Nothing in the poem is left
dangling or is independent. Its wholeness and completeness are a strength in itself (Bate 157). There is a mixture of fulfillment and finality to the poem as well as for the poet. The poem had no long-term preparation. A sense of abundance in the poem coupled with decline and loss, directly correlates to the life of an ingenious poet, so filled with the energy and talent for his profession, waning in health as tuberculosis ravaged his body (Motion 462-463). "To Autumn" was composed by Keats after a long walk in the afternoon on September 19, 1819 (Ward 320-321).

In this short poem, many resolutions are attained (Bate156). In the first stanza, there is a sense of fullness and ripeness as the summer is ending, making way for fall. Under the "maturing sun" is indicative of the climax of ripeness, the end of a bountiful summer, when all of nature is in full bloom. Keats had reached the climax of his life, the ripest point of his career during this
crucial year of 1819 when he wrote many of his greatest poems, including "To Autumn."

In the second stanza, the lines make one aware of the very visual effects of the poem. There is somewhat of a personified spirit of autumn which becomes a mythic figure, a kind of immortal, a gleaner, a harvester. Growth however, continues in this stanza as well: "And still more, later flowers for the bees." Yet even in this stanza there is an overshadowing fact of impermanence, the
cyder reaches its "last oozings." The summer has done its part and is departing and with autumn’s arrival, winter cannot be far away (Bate 157-158). As in Keat’s life, the climatic time had passed. An acknowledgment of a dreaded disease slowed his writing and concerns of his impending death began to permeate his thoughts. So began the autumn of his life.

In the last stanza, the "barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day," and "the light wind lives or dies" give intimations of mortality while seeming to resist it. The day is dying and the gnats, lambs, crickets, and birds all seem to be aware of the approaching darkness. Keats was aware of the approaching darkness. A reluctance to accept death is a human reaction for one stricken
in the prime of life, as the autumn of his life began. The "full-grown lambs" may very well be a reminder of a coming absence which is also a promise of new life elsewhere (Motion 460-461). Once again, this poem so perfectly parallels the life of Keats as he is reminded of the winter of his life when life ceases, when he will resume life "elsewhere." The cycle of life is evident by unison with the cycle of nature.

In "To Autumn" we can apply the seasons to the mind and life of man. Life is a perpetualprocess of ripening, decay, and death. The time of harvest for Keats was 1819 as he created his best work, and he was able to reap the fruits of his labor. It was also a time of heightened romance with Fanny Brawne. This was followed by autumn and decay as the presence of disease
penetrated the poet. Keats recognized the approaching winter of his life when all would end (Bush 176-178). "To Autumn" balances the forces of life and death. It is this balance that lends itself to being termed his most perfect poem, (Motion 461).

Fall in itself, is a retrospective time of the year. One cannot help but to feel that in "To Autumn," Keats views his own life in retrospect. The fullness of life, the joy in sensing the completion of a natural cycle (Ward 321-322). Are we saying good-bye to a season or a man? A summary of achievement in nature yet a half-conscious gesture of farewell to life. It is a closure of the season in nature as well as the season of his life.

We must view Keats as a mature poet who reached a full cycle in his short life. A life that had gone through all of its seasons, even at the young age of twenty-four. It was a life that may be analyzed in terms of richness in production of work, like the spring and summer of nature in its most glorious bloom. He entered the autumn of his life, slowed by disease, which disabled Keats from writing as he once had. Finally, there is the relinquishing to death, as he could not escape the winter of his life. It was the end of the cycle. In such a short poem, as in such a short life, we find a unique balance between life and death. There is the closure of a season, a day and a genius poet. In "To Autumn" Keats asks, "Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?" He need not worry. They are eternal within his poetry.

Works Cited

Bate, Walter jackson, Ed. Keats: A Collection of Critical Essays, Englewood Cliffs:

Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1964.

Forman, Buxton H. The Poetical Works of John Keats. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell

Co., 1895.

Motion, Andrew. Keats. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997.

Nylander, Jon. Online posting. 5 Oct. 1999. John Keats Life Page. 119, Mar. 2000.

<http://hem.passagen.se/jonnyl/keats/>

"To Autumn". The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York:

W.W. norton, Inc., 2000.

Ward. Aileen. John Keats The Making of a Poet. New York: The Viking Press, Inc., 1963.