Stanza 1 Summary
Lines 1-2
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; * From the title it's clear that the speaker is talking about autumn. The speaker briefly describes the season and immediately jumps into personification, suggesting that autumn and the sun are old pals. * "Mists" often accompany chilly weather because the moisture in the air condenses into a vapor when it's cold. * "Mellow fruitfulness" sounds like something people would say at a wine tasting, doesn't it? "Mmm...this season has a mellow fruitfulness, with just a hint of cherry and chocolate." The word "mellow," meaning low-key or subdued, is a good fit for autumn, with its neutral colors and cool, yet not cold, weather. And it's also the season when many fruits and other crops are harvested, making autumn fruit-full. * Autumn is a close friend of the sun, who is "maturing" as the year goes on. "Maturing" could be a polite way of saying "getting old." The sun is no longer in its prime. * A "bosom-friend" is like that friend you told all your secrets to in junior high school.

Lines 3-4
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; * Ah, so now the sun and autumn are "conspiring," eh? Looks like we might have to separate the two of them. What are they whispering about over there? * OK, so not quite as thrilling as we thought. They are planning how to make fruit grow on the vines that curl around the roofs ("eves") of thatched cottages. * The image highlights the weight of the fruit as it "loads" down the vines. * Thatched cottages suggest a pastoral setting, characterized by shepherds, sheep, maidens, and agriculture. The "pastoral" as a literary genre was thought to originate in Ancient Greece, and the ode is a Greek form, so it is appropriate for this ode to include pastoral themes. Keats's other Great Odes, especially "Ode on a Grecian Urn," include similar imagery.
Lines 5-6
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; * Keats is going nuts (pun!) with images of weight and ripeness. The richness here is like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory set in an orchard. * The apples "bend" down the branches of mossy trees with their weight. The trees belong not to some big farming cooperative, but to the simple cottages of country folk. * The ripeness penetrates deep to the very center of the fruit. They're not like those apples that look delicious until you take a bite and realize that the fruit is hard and sour. No, these babies are ready for chow-time right now.
Lines 7-8
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, * In line 6, the ripeness converged on the center of the fruit. Now, the ripeness expands like a balloon to "fill up" nuts and gourds. The opposition of these motions helps us visualize the process. * "Gourds" include things like squash, zucchini, and, especially, pumpkins! What could be more appropriate for autumn than huge pumpkins ripening on the vine? * "Hazel" is a plant that produces the nuts that add delicious flavor to coffee or gelato. The nut is the "sweet kernel" that we eat. * It's almost as if the speaker is coordinating the growth of all these fruits and nuts. He's like, "more! More! MORE!"

Lines 9-11
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. * The "budding" that the speaker describes is in the future. He has just been describing the "kernels" or seeds that drop to the ground when nuts fall from trees. * These seeds will "later" turn into new plants and flowers when spring comes again. * Autumn isn't just a time of things dying off, turning brown, and falling to the ground. It also sets the stage for the return of growth in the spring. From nature's perspective, fruit is the mechanism for planting new seeds. * The speaker goes on a little imaginative trip into the next spring and summer, where the bees take advantage of the flowers that began as a small seed in autumn. Unlike humans, who can make sense of past, present, and future, the bees only know their task for the present. The bees think the summer will never end, and that the flowers will always be in bloom. * The bees are like monks or prisoners inside of "clammy cells," the cells being the moist insides of the flowers in which they seek nectar. * At this point, even the speaker must admit that all this growth has become too much, and summer is like a sweet liquid that threatens to spill over the brim of a glass. Besides, he is starting to get away from the point. Must be time for a new stanza.

Stanza 2 Summary
Line 12
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? * Keats returns to the personification of spring. He asks a rhetorical question: Who hasn't seen autumn hanging out by his or her (we're not sure yet) "store" of fruits, nuts, and other ripe things? * The word "store" suggests the abundance of crops, and you might think of a barn or a grain silo filled with the most recent harvest.
Lines 13-14
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, * Good, he's going to tell us how to find autumn now. It's like trying to find the leprechaun from the Lucky Charms commercial (we'll get those charms from you yet!). * All anyone has to do is travel through the countryside hitting up every "granary" – buildings where large amounts of harvested grain are kept cool and dry – until you find autumn sitting on the floor of one of them. * A silo is one kind of modern granary. * Now that the grain has been harvested, autumn doesn't have a care in the world. The work for this season is done and in the books. * We think "abroad" means "widely" or "through the countryside" or "across the land," rather than "in a foreign country."
Line 15
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; * From this line we will tentatively guess that autumn is a woman. Not only because seasons were traditionally personified as female in European art, but also because this season has oh-so-soft hair. What kind of conditioner are you using, autumn? * We could play gender police and point out that Keats never uses "she" or "her" in this poem, but it's simpler if we use these pronouns while you just keep that fact in mind. * Autumn is like a college student when exams are over: she has nothing to do but hang out. She sits on the granary, and her hair is lifted by a gentle wind. * The word "winnowing" is perfect here because "to winnow" in farm-speak means to separate the grain (the edible part of the plant) from the chaff (its inedible covering). In centuries past, farmers winnowed their crops by having people beat the harvested plant with, say, large sticks. This action loosens the heavier grain, and then the chaff is light enough that it can be blown away, or "winnowed," in the wind. * The place where the grain and the chaff are separated is called the "threshing floor" – this is where autumn is hanging out.

Lines 16-18
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers: * But, Keats, what if she's not on the threshing floor? Where do we find autumn? * Well, he says, she might also be on the furrow of a field that has only partially been harvested. She's taking a nap because, darn it, she's earned one. "Furrows" are the long, undulating hills that you see in fields, on top of which crops grow. The dips in the furrows are used for irrigation. * The speaker claims that autumn is basically drunk on the smell of the poppy flowers that she was going to harvest. She lies on the furrow while the "hook," or sickle, that she uses to cut the flowers lies unused. She hasn't gotten to the next "swatch" of flowers, so they're saved... for now. * The reference to poppies is no accident. Poppies were used to make opium, a drug that was popular in England in the 19th century. The writer Thomas de Quincey wrote an article called "Confessions of an Opium-Eater" about his experience with the drug, which was published the year after "To Autumn." * Of course, the smell of the flowers alone could not make someone intoxicated, except metaphorically.
Lines 19-20
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook; * The harvesting metaphors continue, as autumn is compared to a "gleaner," someone who picks out the last stalks of grain that were missed during the threshing process. Poor peasants would often be allowed to "glean" the field, the equivalent of picking up scraps after a feast. * Autumn puts her head down to cross over a brook, just as a gleaner bows his or her head to look for grains. Her head is "laden" or heavy – yet another image of weight.

Lines 21-22
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours. * But, if we still haven't had autumn, after searching all those other places, we might try the "cider-press," where she's totally mesmerized watching the fruit get squeezed into a thick, sugary juice. * Apple cider is the most common form, but pear cider is also drunk in England. Cider is frequently alcoholic, so this could be another reference to an intoxicant. See "Calling Card" for more on this trend in Keats's poetry. * Autumn is starting to sound like a real slacker. She has nothing to do, nowhere to be. She can "patiently" watch the thick juice or "ooze" of the apples drop from the press for hours on end. * "Oozings" is definitely our favorite word in this poem. It captures the concentrated sweetness of the season.

Stanza 3 Summary
Lines 23-24
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,-- * The final stanza begins with another rhetorical question, which we'll paraphrase as, "Where are your songs at, Spring? Huh? Bring it, if you got it. I can't hear you... Yeah, that's what I thought." * That's the super-aggressive version, at least. But the speaker is definitely needling the season opposite to autumn on the calendar. Spring might be great and all, but it doesn't stick around, so who needs it. * He reassures autumn, who might be feeling a tad inadequate compared to her more celebrated counterpart, that she has her own music. * Keats alludes again to the pastoral tradition in poetry, in which shepherds typically "sing" in springtime, often while playing a lyre.

Lines 25-26
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; * The speaker begins to describe the "song" of autumn. It's more of a metaphorical song, in that the scene begins with light and images. * He describes the patchy clouds, between which patches of sky can be seen, as "barred." These clouds appear to be in "bloom," like flowers, as they light up with the colors of sunset. The use of "bloom" is a direct challenge, again, to springtime. * The day is "dying" at sunset, but it's not a tragic or violent death. It's "soft" and gentle. * The reddish colors of the sunlight "touch" the fields gently. The fields have been harvested, so all that is left is a flat "stubble" of crop.
Lines 27-29
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; * The gnats by the riverside "mourn" the dying day like a choir at a funeral. They are "wailing" as if the daylight had been a favorite grandparent or something. * In fact, they are just doing what gnats do: coming out at evening time. The choir sound is the collective buzzing of their tiny little wings. Some people would have a different word than "choir" to describe this sound: namely, "extremely annoying." * Gnats especially like to hang out in wet areas, near trees, and here we find them near the willow or "sallow" trees down by the river. * Their movement appears to be coordinated with the light. Light gets brighter, gnats go up; light gets dimmer, gnats go down. Keats is having all kinds of fun with movement and directions in this poem. * The speaker continues to paint the sunset as a life-or-death struggle for the light. * The sound of the gnats contributes to the song of autumn.
Lines 30-33
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. * The poem concludes with more animal sounds, but those of a more conventional variety than the buzzing of gnats. * Lambs are bleating near the small stream, or "bourn," that flows down a hill. Notice that the speaker calls them "full-grown lambs," which is like saying, "full-grown child." Wouldn't that just be a sheep? He seems to want to highlight the in-between stage between the glorious ripeness of youth and plain old adulthood. * Crickets are "singing" by rubbing their wings together, otherwise known as "chirping." * With a soft but high ("treble") voice, the redbreast robin is whistling in an enclosed garden, or "garden-croft." * Last but not least, the swallows have taken to the sky at twilight, and they "twitter" joyfully as the sun goes down. * Now, really, what kind of ending is that? We just have a bunch of images of different birds and beasts! If this were a movie, you would probably leave the theater scratching your head. Fortunately, it's a poem, so we can keep asking questions, which is why you should check out the other sections of Shmoop's analysis.

Summary According to Keats, Autumn is a season of mists; a cloudlike aggregation of minute globules of water suspended in the atmosphere at or near the earth's surface, reducing visibility to a lesser degree than fog; and mellow; soft, sweet, and full-flavored from ripeness, as fruit: well-matured, as wines: soft and rich, as sound, tones, color, or light: made gentle and compassionate by age or maturity; softened: friable or loamy, as soil: mildly and pleasantly intoxicated or high: pleasantly agreeable; free from tension, discord, etc.: affably relaxed; easygoing; genial; fruitfulness and a close friend of the maturing sun. It conspires; to agree together, esp. secretly, to do something wrong, evil, or illegal: to act or work together toward the same result or goal: to plot; with him in a unique manner to load and bless with fruits the vines that round the thatch-eaves run; overhanging thatched roofs; To bend with apples the moss’d cottage trees and fill all fruit with ripeness to the core. To swell the gourd and plumb the hazel shells with a sweet kernel; the softer, usually edible part contained in the shell of a nut or the stone of a fruit: the body of a seed within its husk or integuments: a whole seed grain, as of wheat or corn: the pit or seed of a peach, cherry, plum, etc: the central or most important part of anything; essence; gist; core: to set budding more and still even more later flowers for the bees. Until the moment they think warm days will never end; for summer has over-brimmed; the softer, usually edible part contained in the shell of a nut or the stone of a fruit: the body of a seed within its husk or integuments: a whole seed grain, as of wheat or corn: the pit or seed of a peach, cherry, plum, etc: the central or most important part of anything; essence; gist; core: their clammy cells; covered with a cold, sticky moisture; cold and damp: sickly; morbid. Who had not seen autumn at the peak of its own season?; autumn is personified and represented as successively identifiable with women working at the granary fields or at a cider press; Sometimes whoever seeks autumn beyond the boundaries of time may find it sitting carelessly on a granary floor; a storehouse or repository for grain, esp. after it has been threshed or husked: a region that produces great quantities of grain; its hair lifted softly by the winnowing wind; to free (grain) from the lighter particles of chaff, dirt, etc., esp. by throwing it into the air and allowing the wind or a forced current of air to blow away impurities: to drive or blow (chaff, dirt, etc.) away by fanning: to blow upon; fan: to subject to some process of separating or distinguishing; analyze critically; sift: to separate or distinguish (valuable from worthless parts) (sometimes fol. by out ): to pursue (a course) with flapping wings in flying: to fan or stir (the air) as with the wings in flying: to free grain from chaff by wind or driven air: to fly with flapping wings; flutter; or sound asleep in a half reaped furrow. Drowsed with the fumes of poppies, while its hook spares the next swath and all its twined flowers. Sometimes like a gleaner; to gather slowly and laboriously, bit by bit: to gather (grain or the like) after the reapers or regular gatherers: to learn, discover, or find out, usually little by little or slowly: it does keep steady its laden head across a brook or with a patient look it watches a cyder press the last oozing for the next few hours. Keats wanders at the whereabouts of the songs of spring yet discourages the readers to think of them for autumn has its own melodies. While the barred clouds; to gather slowly and laboriously, bit by bit: to gather (grain or the like) after the reapers or regular gatherers: to learn, discover, or find out, usually little by little or slowly; bloom the soft dying day and touched the stubble-plains; Usually, stubbles. The stumps of grain and other stalks left in the ground when the crop is cut: such stumps collectively: any short, rough growth, as of beard; with rosy hue; in a willful choir the small gnats; Usually, stubbles. The stumps of grain and other stalks left in the ground when the crop is cut: such stumps collectively: any short, rough growth, as of beard; Mourn among the river-sallows; a kind of a broad leaved tree. borne aloft or sinking as the light wind lives or dies. The full grown lambs bleat loudly from the hilly bourn, the hedge cricket sing, the red breast whistles with a treble soft note from a garden croft; a small enclosed area within a garden; and the gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

* In stanza 1, the poet designates autumn as 'a season of mists and mellow fruitfulness' which matures all fruits to their core with the friendly help of the sun. Typically sensuous Keatsian images of vine-creepers loaded with ripeness, the swelling goards & hazel nuts chracterise the season. The bees go on collecting more honey that overflows the hives.

* In stanza 2, Autumn is personified as a winnower, a reaper, a gleaner & a cyder-presser as the seemingly unending ripening process of the season continues.

* Stanza 3 deals with the sights & sounds of autumn. Keats's gift of pictorial imagery presents the magical beauty of an autumnal twilight. Autumn should not regret for the superiority of the vernal music, for the autumnal orchestration of the buzz of gnats, the bleating of lambs, the song of the grass-hoppers, of the robin redbreasts, and the twittering of the swallows has its own distinctiveness.