Compare Poems on a Theme: 'To Autumn' and 'Ode to Autumn'

This activity will introduce you to two traditional poems on the theme of autumn.

The first is the first stanza from 'To Autumn' by William Blake and the other is the first stanza from 'Ode to Autumn' by John Keats.

To Autumn

O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stain’d
With the blood of the grape, pass not, but sit
Beneath my shady roof; there thou may’st rest,
And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe,
And all the daughters of the year shall dance!
Sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers.

- William Blake, 1783

Ode to Autumn

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...

- John Keats, 1819

In this activity, we are going to study these two poems in detail.

You can look back at them at any point during the activity by clicking on the pink help button on the right-hand side of the screen.