The Human Seasons ….

Four Seasons fill the measure of the year;

     There are four seasons in the mind of man:

He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear

     Takes in all beauty with an easy span:

He has his Summer, when luxuriously

     Spring’s honied cud of youthful thought he loves

To ruminate, and by such dreaming high

     Is nearest unto heaven: quiet coves

His soul has in its Autumn, when his wings

     He furleth close; contented so to look

On mists in idleness—to let fair things

     Pass by unheeded as a threshold brook.

He has his Winter too of pale misfeature,

Or else he would forego his mortal nature.

By : John Keats

Summary

In this poem the poet compares the four seasons of a natural year with the several stages of human life . The theme of the poem is to narrate how brief and temporary our life is and so as the thoughts and feelings which we experience in each period of our life .The main idea of the poem is distributed in four steps , one for each stanza corresponding to each season of the year : Spring , Summer, Autumn and Winter .

The poem starts with the introduction to the natural cycle of birth , growth , reproduction and death . The first stage is compared to spring described as short and happy representing our childhood which is beautiful and often full of attraction .

Then comes the best time of our life that is youth – summer when we “ruminate thoughts” that is we have some experience and we are able to think about what we did in our childhood. This is the so called maturity age. These thoughts can only be fed by sweet, tender childhood memories. Through these thoughts men can be totally happy, “unto heaven”. The age line for Summer could be from the 20s to the 40s.

Autumn covers the third stanza and includes spiritual experiences. In this stage human beings are mature, their tiredness is reflected in their acts. The words used are calm and relaxing: “quiet coves”, “closed wings”, “mist in idleness”, “threshold brook”. What the poet tries to express is that we have to admit that we are getting old, we have to be satisfied of our deeds and we just let time pass by .

Only in the last two verses Winter is mentioned. Death just happens once, it is everybody’s destiny and nobody can run away from it. The mortal nature of men is described here as “pale misfeature”. There are two different ways of interpreting it, on the one hand men grows old so beauty and health get reduced, but on the other hand we can imagine that it can be the description of the deformed body after death as everybody will end the same.

Courtesy : mural.uv.es