October 31, 2013 marks the 218th anniversary of the birth of British poet John Keats. Let’s celebrate the occasion with his paean to the fall season.
TO AUTUMN (Excerpt)
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-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…
…Read “To Autumn” in its entirety at poetryfoundation.org.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: John Keats (1795–1821) was an English poet, one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantic poets along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His reputation grew after his death from tuberculosis at age 25, and by the end of the 19th century he was one of the most beloved of all English poets. He had a significant influence on a diverse range of poets and writers, including Jorge Luis Borges, who stated that his first encounter with Keats was the most significant literary experience of his life. (Read more at wikipedia.org.)
Silver Birch Press 