Keats’ ode ‘To Autumn’ – 200 year anniversary

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• • November 30, 2019 at 12:09 am #384623
    Howard Brown

    Participant

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Autumn

    Winchester published a leaflet for the anniversary which you can download at visitwinchester.co.uk – I just found a printed copy in the Park & Ride South bus station not far from the end of Keats’ walk. The third and final stanza begins

    Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?

    Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,–

    While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,

    And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

    N.B.  I think I need a Keelin to explain to me how he saw clouds…

  • November 30, 2019 at 5:47 pm #384766
    Patricia L Keelin

    Participant

    Thank you for sharing this, Hygge! Your wondering led me to wonder as well. In this ode, I think Keats is reminding us that Autumn offers as much beauty as that darling of seasons, Spring. His writings often feature images drawn of light and shadow, the ways of water and clouds in metaphor. With a bit of pareidolia, perhaps the bard saw the clouds as “barred” when displaying their undulatus form? If he meant to imply they are held back, he then sets them free to “bloom” in brilliant hues as one would expect blossoms in Spring to re-stake their color-claim after a stark Winter’s passing. Just my guessing in all this. Were he still with us, he’d be willing to decode (maybe in yet another ode?) more clearly than ever could I.

    

  • December 3, 2019 at 12:57 am #385282
    Howard Brown

    Participant

    Thank you for your illuminating thoughts, Keelin, beautifully illustrated, I think undulatus is an interesting suggestion for barred – Wiki does not mention it as far as I can see, so perhaps you can work it into their words (assuming one can update a Wiki article).

    For the casual reader, you can link to the ICA from the second, fixed topic in this forum and search ‘undulatus’

    Cloud IDs: International Cloud Atlas

    I can see the Winchester clouds above my local tree line (as in my recent topic ‘Magic Moments’ (pileus)) – there is a conifer which I will think of as Keats henceforth. Undulatus is not common round here but I can recall two major undulatus events since I joined CAS on 26JAN2007.

  • December 12, 2019 at 2:18 pm #385935
    Howard Brown

    Participant

    https://www.clouds-online.com/cloud_atlas/stratocumulus/images/stratocumulus_undulatus_4.htm

    Horizontally ‘barred’ undulates, albeit Sc may not be conducive to rosy hue.

  • December 12, 2019 at 4:08 pm #388167
    Patricia L Keelin

    Participant

    Perhaps the rosy hue comes from within the stubble-plains themselves, aglow by gift of clouds reflecting the setting sun of a soft-dying day. Or lit purely by poetic license? ;) Whatever the bard may have meant, it is a lovely poem to revisit! So thanks again, Hygge, for bringing it round.

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