The Human Seasons
by John Keats
Main Idea
In John Keats poem, each season represents our lives as humans. He shows how seasons are like people, in that they change like us and have different personalities and moods. Like people, in the spring everything is beautiful, positive, and growing, just like we grow. In summer everything is more mature but not completely and it is a time of joy. As autumn arrives everything is older and mature but yet beautiful because of its maturity. Just as winter is white so does the hair of the elderly become and this is the time of peacefulness because they will soon expire.
Theme
Each season is a different stage in our life and with every passing season we become more and more mature. Our lives are always changing just like the season and we cannot stop it. “There are four seasons in the mind of man.”
Poetic Technique
John Keats first poetic technique is using an extended metaphor to compare the full seasons to all the stages of a humans life shown in this quote, “Four seasons fill the measure of the year.” In the second metaphor he compares the stages of life to the stages of nature. In this quote, “He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear Takes in all beauty with an easy span” he compares spring to a child that is young, healthy, and filled with imagination.
Winter
During winter everything is old and its time on earth is soon to be over but will give way to a new generation in the time to come.