On the Grasshopper and the Cricket

John Keats

The poetry of earth is never dead.

About the Poet John Keats belongs to the second generation of Romantic Poets . His poetry is characterized by elaborate word choice and sensuous imagery .

This is most notable in his Great odes which remain among the finest poems in English Literature .
His major works includes Belle Dame Sans Merci , Ode to a Nightingale , To Autumn , The Fall of Hyperion etc .

ON THE GRASSHOPPER AND THE CRICKET The poetry of earth is never dead : When all the birds are faint with the hot sun , And hide in cooling trees , a voice will run From hedge to hedge about the new mead

That is the grasshoppers - he takes the lead

In summer luxury ,- he has never done With his delights, for when tired out with fun He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed

The poetry of earth is ceasing never : On alone winter evening , when the frost Has wrought a silence , from the store there shrills The Crickets song , in warmth in creasing ever ,

And seems to one in drowsiness half lost ,

The grasshoppers among some grassy hills .

Thematic Content

Cricket

Grasshopper
The poem ON THE GRESSHOPPER AND THE CRICKET by Keats shows this love for nature .

And also the beauty of nature in different fashions

Poet draws the picture of two seasons , the summer and the winter . These seasons represents two different stages in human life ,youth and old age .

TONE:

How does the poet create the atmosphere of summer in the first 8 lines? How does the poet create the atmosphere of winter in the last 7 lines? What is the overall tone of the poem?

IMAGERY: Comment on the effect of the following phrases: When all the birds are faint with the hot sun a voice will run from hedge to hedge he takes the lead in summer luxury He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed when the frost has wrought a silence

And seems to one in drowsiness half-lost

IMAGERY: What is meant by the line The poetry of earth is never dead? What is the effect of the repetition The poetry of earth is ceasing never?

Why does Keats leave the word never until the end of the line? (the grammatical structure is rather unusual)
Comment on the Aural (relating to sound) quality of the final line; The grasshoppers among some grassy hills.

FORM It is in the Petrarchan or Italian Sonnet form. The original Italian sonnet form divides the poem's 14 lines into two parts, an octave (first eight lines) and a sestet (last six lines). The rhyme scheme for the octave is typically abbaabba. There are a few possibilities for the sestet, including cdecde, cdcdcd, and cdcdee. Which one is used by Keats? Like Milton, who also used this form, Keats wrote sonnets about many different subjects, not specifically, as early sonnet writers tended to, about love.

FEELING: The sound evokes memories of the grasshopper in the last line and takes the reader to the beginning of the poem again. In what ways does a consideration of this help to understand the full meaning of the first line, 'The poetry of earth is never dead? Explain your own view of what Keats is trying to say through this poem in one or two sentences.