By John Keats

1. On the Grasshopper & the Cricket By John Keats By John Keats

2. John Keats (1795-1821) – the last of the English Romantic poets. Is considered as one of the “Big Six” of romantic poets. Influences of Keats' poetry: -Romanticism: a counter reaction against the Age of Enlightenment movement around the 18th Century (rational ideals and scientific discoveries), it instead believed in the power of the human imagination and the way of feeling. Wordsworth, another prominent Romantic poet, defined good poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”, which resonates with the idea of Romanticism being able to convey ideas and images through imagination and sensual imagery. Also worthy of note is that Romanticist literature and poetry usually involved nature as a prominent theme.

3. -Keats' short life and also his family's: during 1820, Keats displayed increasingly serious symptoms of tuberculosis (and died at 25), the disease which had killed his mother and brother also. Knowing he was dying he wrote to Fanny Brawne (his girlfriend whom he betrothed) expressing his feelings over his life: “I have left no immortal work behind me – nothing to make my friends proud of my memory – but I have lov'd the principle of beauty in all things, and if I had had time I would have made myself remember'd”. His last request was to be buried under an unnamed tombstone which contained only the words, “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.” Thus it is significant to consider this as an influence on his poetry. Many of Keats' greatest works were odes (typically a lyrical verse written in praise of, or dedicated to someone of something which captures the poet's interest or serves as inspiration for the ode), therefore it is important to consider Keats' hardships and how it may reflect in his writing; for example, consider Keats' use of the word 'faint' to describe the birds.

4. Overview -written relatively early in Keats' career (30 December 1816 - aged 21) -The poem was written as a response to a sort of competition between himself and his great friend, Leigh Hunt, as to who could write the best verse, in a short time, on a specified topic. Keats won on this occasion, although he generously avowed that he preferred the other poet’s attempt. (One may therefore draw the link to spontaneity and intuition in poetry.) -It is in the Petrarchan or Italian form of the sonnet with an octave and a sestet, without a rhyming couplet at the end. -It parallels Aesop's fable “The Ant and the Grasshopper” in which the grasshopper light-heartedly plays during the summer, while the ant toils. When winter comes, the grasshopper, unlike the ant is ill prepared for its severity. One may also consider that the grasshopper does not achieve anything with its short life (12 months) linking to Keats' personal opinion of his life.

5. Thematic Links Descriptions of nature: The Voice, Time, Amends, Full Moon and Little Frieda, Lament, The Flower-Fed Buffaloes, Report to Wordsworth, First Love, Sonnet 29. (1,2,4,5,8,9,10,14) Time: The Voice, Time, Dover Beach, So, We’ll Go No More A-Roving, Sonnet 29. (1,2,3,12,14) The Metaphysical: Time, Dover Beach, Amends, Full Moon and Little Frieda. (2,3,4,5) Sonnets: Report to Wordsworth, Sonnet 43, Sonnet 29. (9,13,14)

6. The poem clearly emphasises the cyclical nature of nature. The “poetry of earth” is a metaphor for what Keats interprets as the pure nature of the earth; this links with Keats' belief in Romanticism: the ability to convey imagery and feeling via the senses and imagination, something which will never die, just as nature will never die and is a cycle. The point is then continued in the transition from the octave to the sestet . Although “the poetry of earth is ceasing never”, it is implied to be diminishing via this transition to the sestet, emphasised especially through the use of echoes: “The poetry of earth is ceasing never:” is deliberately worded such to rhyme with “ever” three lines later and also is a reflection of the aforementioned “never done” three lines beforehand; the cricket then metaphorically represents the echo of summer by echoing “The grasshopper's” song (“The cricket's song/...seems to one in drowsiness half lost,/ The grasshopper's among some grassy hills”). In this certain imagery of weariness and tiredness (however not necessarily bitter) as shown by “drowsiness half lost” “On a lone winter evening”, the echo of summer is emphasised even more especially with the previous summer imagery being of “luxury”, “delights”, “pleasant[ness]” and “fun” (which reflects the human symbolisation of summer hence being symbolised by the grasshopper) and the description of the “cricket's song (“in warmth increasing ever”). This also reiterates the contrast of: the cycle of summer and winter and the cycle between day and night which resonates with the contrast of the grasshopper being diurnal and the cricket a nocturnal creature. The implication of the echo imagery expresses the never-ending cycle of nature; its persistence reminds the reader of this, bringing the reader hope, optimism and even nostalgia of better times. Then there is also the paralleling of Aesop's fable: its contrast of “fun” summer times with the harder winter times with that of the grasshopper and the cricket and ultimately therefore the respect needed for this cycle of nature, something the grasshopper took for granted and did lead to its untimely death.

7. The first octave is established with the significant line: “The poetry of earth is never dead:”. The use of the colon further develops the metaphor of the first line and its emphasis of the “poetry of earth”'s cyclical nature through the idea that the colon is in fact used to signify the start of a list and does not end the sentence at all, rather, it continues it on. It is also significant that it rhymes with the alliterative phrase “new-mown mead” to link the actual imagery of nature with the idea of cyclical nature metaphorized in the opening line. Not only does the echo o f summer occur in the sestet but there is also complementary imagery of winter in summer in the octave: the birds “hide in cooling trees”, however this is to a much lesser extent. In fact, this is the only instance of winter imagery mentioned in this octave; the implication of such being that it is correlative to the predominate relationship of the summer imagery echoed in winter, a reminder of this eternal cycle and beauty of nature. There are explicit allusions and parallels to Aesop's fable dotted throughout this poem. The grasshopper's time on the earth with the ant (in the fable) is paralleled to the grasshopper's song with the cricket's (in the poem), however the cricket's song brings memories of the grasshopper and thus acts as more so a reminder of the grasshopper and its symbolism of summer, and moreover, its embodiment of mankind thus instilling this sense that mankind should therefore be aware of this symbolism and respect nature unlike its representative grasshopper. The grasshopper “takes the lead/ in summer luxury”, indeed confirms the parallel of Aesop's representation of mankind via the grasshopper. These parallels imply the nature of mankind embodied by the grasshopper to be somewhat cyclical in that there are good times contrasted with the harder times, however in a diminishing quality. This is shown via the contrast of the stronger summer imagery in the octave with the winter imagery of the sestet something emphasised even more as Keats' sets the winter context immediately within the first line “On a lone winter evening” to make way for this predominate theme. As such the nature of mankind, by being embodied by the grasshopper, who is implied to die an untimely death in both poems (the grasshopper does not live throughout the whole cycle), suggests that there is a necessity for mankind to have an awareness and respect (appreciation) for this cyclical nature lest it should follow the same path as the grasshopper.

8. Use of language cont.: It is quite interesting to consider the language used to convey the theme of nature as a cycle throughout the poem. The theme having immediately been established in the opening line of the octave, is then continued quite excessively through this imagery of summer: “From hedge to hedge” repetitively emphasises not only the sensual imagery of nature for the reader but also connotes the theme of cyclical nature; “he takes the lead” and the rhyming of “run” with “hot sun” links cyclical imagery with nature imagery and are both uses of cyclical imagery in movement. “In summer luxury – he has never done”, the choice of words “never done” emphasises the eternalness of cycles and the metaphor of “the poetry of earth”. “He rests at ease beneath some pl(ea)sant weed.” - The concluding line of the octave, another link of nature, “weed” (in this sense it's most likely a neutral plant), with “lead” beforehand to link nature and cyclical imagery, and also emphasises the carefreeness of the grasshopper by his “[rest] at ease”. The establishment of the sestet after the initial opening line is quite significant especially in terms of how the speed the winter imagery is brought about. The setting is immediately established: “On a lone winter evening,” followed by the interesting use of language to describe “the frost” which “Has wrought a silence,”. The word “wrought” implies that the “frost” has actually forcefully entered being described such by forcing a “silence” with its entry; in this the winter imagery is thus confirmed as being symbolic of harsher times therefore reinforcing the link that the imagery of winter is used to enhance the imagery of summer further. Through these things, and the last line's renewal of the cycle by its reminder of the “grasshopper's [song] among some grassy hills” reemphasise the summer imagery and also parallel idea that mankind must be aware of, respect and appreciate the eternal cycle of nature.

9. Fin By James Stannard and Daniel Ge