Allegory—a story in which people, things, and events have another meaning

Although “To Autumn” is an ode to autumn’s beauty, it also contains elements of nostalgia and melancholy. These elements reflect an overarching theme in the poem, which is that for all its beauty, autumn must eventually pass away to make room for winter. The seasons always change, bringing cycles of life and death.

Alliteration—the repetition of identical or similar consonant sounds, normally at the beginning of words

“mists and mellow” (1), “fill all fruit” (6), “flowers for” (9), “winnowing wind”, (15), “spares the next swath” (18), “barred clouds bloom” (25), “soft-dying day” (25), “lambs loud” (30)

Allusion--a reference in a work of literature to something outside the work; the allusion can be Biblical, mythical, or historical

Keats personifies Autumn into a figure who is part of nature and controls the harvest, which is an allusion to the Greek goddess Demeter.

Ambiguity—a statement which can contain two or more meanings

“maturing sun” (2): the sun can be maturing himself, or he can be maturing the plants and animals on earth. Most likely, Keats wanted both meanings to be taken into consideration.

Apostrophe—a direct address to someone or something that is absent

“To Autumn” is addressed to the personified figure of Autumn

Assonance—the repetition of vowel sounds

“Conspiring with him how to load and bless” (3), “moss’d cottage-trees” (5), “winnowing wind” (15), “O on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep” (16), “Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies” (29), “full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn” (30)

Caesura—a pause in the middle of the verse

Every stanza has examples of this with a coma or semicolon creating the pause

Enjambment—one line continues without a pause into the next line

Every stanza has examples of this; created by the lack of punctuation at the end of a line

Imagery—images that the visual language evoke; they pertain to the five senses

Sight: Autumn is a harvester, her hair "soft-lifted by the winnowing wind" (15), checking, cutting, and gleaning the crops. She sleeps, "drows'd by the fume of the poppies" (17), and she watches the "last oozings hours by hours" (22). “To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells” (7), "And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue" (26), “And gathering swallows twitter in the skies” (33)

Smell: first stanza: sharp smell of the early-morning mist, the mellow and ripe apples, and the sweet-smelling flowers that attract bees. “Drows’d with the fume of poppies” (17)

Hearing: “Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn” (27), “And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn” (30),“Hedge-crickets sing” (31), "The red-breast whistles" (32), "And gathering swallows twitter in the skies" (33).

Juxtaposition—the placing side by side of contrasting elements

As the poem progresses, the praise of the season is contrasted with the foreshadowing of the long, dead winter to come. “Think not of them, thou hast thy music too/While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day” (24-25)

Onomatopoeic--words which imitate the natural sounds they portray

"Then in a wailful choir [...]" (27), "And full-grown lambs loud bleat [...]" (30), "And gathering swallows twitter [...]" (33)

Panegyric—poem which praises or eulogizes something or someone

“To Autumn” celebrates the season’s gifts and praises its accomplishments while foreshadowing the impending winter which will kill Autumn.

Parallelism—phrases which exhibit repetition of structure or meaning

“[…] to load and bless […] To bend with apples […] To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells […] to set budding more” (3-8)

Appeal to Pathos—appeal to emotions

Keats writes “full-grown lambs loud bleat” (30) rather than naming them sheep, which compares to naming people full-grown infants.

Periphrasis—the use of a descriptive phrase rather than a simple one

“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” (1) to describe Autumn

Personification—a figurative use of language which endows human traits onto non-human objects

Stanza two personifies Autumn as “Conspiring with [the sun] how to load and bless” (3), “sitting careless on a granary floor” (14), sound asleep “on a half –reap’d furrow” (16), or watching patiently “the last oozings hours by hours” (22).

Repetition—a specific word, phrase, or structure is repeated

“[…] to set budding more/And still more” (8)

Simile—comparison of two different objects using “like” or “as”

“And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep” (19)

Synecdoche—device in which a part stands for the whole

The apples, gourd, hazel shells, kernels, and granary floor stand for the harvest, which signifies Autumn.

Tone—attitude of the work

The first stanza praises Autumn and conveys the feeling that it will never end: “Until they think warm days will never cease” (10). The next stanza presents a personified Autumn which dwells in all the activities of fall. Autumn is unhurried and does as she pleases, perpetuating the soft and appealing mood. The final stanza has a tone shift when it asks about Spring, and then reassures Autumn that “thou hast thy music too,” (24). The pleasant and leisurely tone disappears when the possibility of death enters the scene as all the animals mourn the coming of winter and the death of Autumn.

Ubi Sunt—Latin for “where are they?” It is generally used as a lament for the passing of all things