But the critics say only that person who has tasted

But the critics say: only that person who has tasted the sweetness of joy can
appreciate the bitterness of melancholy. The perception of this Ode; as Robert Bridges
admires, “This Ode is profound and no doubt experienced”. In this ode, Keats emphasizes the
all- pervading nature of melancholy in human life.
Keats last ode “Ode to Autumn” is one of the most thematically rich of
Keats ode . The theme indicates that Autumn is a season of bringing fulfilling and fruition,
yet the theme ending the pictures of Autumn as a season of dying. The three stanza poem
seems to generate three different stages of Autumn growth, harvest, and death. Autumn is a
season of “mellow fruitfulness”. Ode to autumn is a poem of untroubled serenity. Where the
poet describes autumn is the bosom friend of the maturing sun. Autumn depicts the theme of
ripeness, decay and death in describing the natural cycle of seasons: Autumn , spring and
winter. The poem depicting an entirely different mood of Keats, a mood of complete calm
and serenity, a mood that sets his mind at rest .he enjoys the “season of mists and mellow
fruitfulness”. He is happy to think that soon all fruits shall be full :
“
with ripeness to the core
”
In the opening stanza of the poem we find sun at its height of maturity prepared,

“ To load and bless
With fruit the vines”
The ode gives a graphic description of the season of autumn with all its richness.But as the
poem progresses it gives an authentic images of autumn through living personifications like
those of a reaper, a gleaner and a wine – grower.
“Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
………
Thy hair soft lifted by the winnowing wind;”
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep”
As the poem progress, the day starts dawning and towards the close of poem. But when the
winter is about to set in for the poet asks,
“where are the song of spring?”.
Immediately the questions is stilled , and the momentary regret gives place to contentment:
“Think not of them, thou hast thy music too”.
Thus the hidden meaning in the poem is the ups and downs to which human life is always so
prone. This joy in the present, the isolation of the beauty of the hour, the making of it a divine
possession and losing in its loveliness the pain of life. It’s the power of isolation the present
hour from the past or the future which gives to the poem a unique charm.
The concluding stanzas of the odes express two philosophical ideas. First,the
incomprehensibility of the infinite in art and nature and the ethics of beauty. In the above
odes Keats attains to a higher degree of philosophic thought than in any other of his poem. It
touches the philosophy of art and the ethics of human life. To Keats , beauty is the touch –
stone of truth. In this connection Mathew Arnold says “To see things in their beauty is to see
things in their beauty”.

3.