Comment 1 of 1, added on August 20th, 2008 at 8:13 AM.
The famous monologue from Shakespeare’s As You Like It, spoken by the melancholy Jaques, gives a list of the seven different stages in a man’s life – infancy, childhood, lover, soldier, justice, old age, and death. This division of human life is sometimes referred to as “seven ages of man”. Keats, however, found in human life four distinct phases, visible with the progress of life from beginning to the end. In his sonnet “The Human Seasons”, he delineates these four stages of life. Comparing the life span of a man with a year, he says that, like in a year, there are four seasons in a man’s life, too. In a man’s life there are four seasons that complete the period, just like the four natural seasons that ‘fill the measure of the year’.
The first period of a man’s life, Keats says, is the ‘lusty Spring’. His youth is compared with the ‘Summer’. He is in his ‘Autumn’ when he reaches his maturer age, i.e., the middle of his life. And when he crawls toward the old age, it is the dismal ‘Winter’ that prevails upon him.
The childhood of a man is a ‘lusty Spring’ because it is strong and vigorous, full of life. The year begins with spring which is a season of freshness and joy. In the same way our life begins with childhood which is fresh and bright, full of promises. This is the age of innocence, totally unsullied, clean and clear – the state of total perfection and loveliness. Just like the sweet flowers of spring that pronounce the onset of the year, our life begins to bloom from our childhood. The mind of childhood is so fresh and fanciful and receptive that it is immediately attracted and charmed by the all beautiful objects. His susceptible mind instantly responds to nature’s call.
This wildness of infancy is afterwards tempered with the warmth of the summer of his youth. His enjoyment of beauty now becomes very moderate. This enjoyment is not like the ‘appetite’ of his childhood when he would greedily gobble whatever he got totally undigested. The mind of youth, rather, loves to ‘ruminate’ his sweet childhood memories and in this way gratifies his hunger. Thus he can enjoy much more profoundly and this enjoyment is almost heavenly. The rumination of ‘youthful thought’ is like a high dreaming, deep and full of meaning. This enjoyment is calm and quiet. The quietness of the age can be compared with a cove which is still and peaceful.
Then comes the Autumn of his life – the age fruitfulness and completeness, an age of total saturation and fulfillment. It is the age of complete repose, when the fluttering wings are folded. The middle-aged man becomes almost idle and indifferent to all things around him. He lives his life listlessly and detaches himself from all charms. The fair things pass by ‘unheeded’. Nothing can attract him anymore. He lives in the ‘mist’ of forgetfulness, unmoved by any pulsation of life. His life now moves with a subterranean flow, almost imperceptibly, like a ‘threshold brook’ – the stream that runs silently and invisibly under the cover of sand.
The year of his life comes to a full circle when he his surprised by the chills of Winter. Just like in winter when everything assumes a deathly look, the life of an old man wears ‘pale misfeatures’. He has to suffer all disgraces and disfeatures, i.e., abnormalities of old life or else he must leave his ‘mortal nature’ or human life.
The most beautiful feature of the poem is, perhaps, Keats’s brilliant use of images in the poem. He not only made the use of apt metaphors drawn from seasons, but he also created very significant images. The image of ruminating the ‘honey’d cud of youthful thought’ is perfectly done. This image evokes in our mind the very act of animal’s chewing the undigested food. The image of a tired bird closing its restless wings is also very beautiful.
The poet’s using the sonnet pattern to portray the four seasons of man is also very justified. The four stanzas each describes a season of life. The short couplet with which the poem ends, precisely describes the brief, insignificant span of old age that ultimately ends with death. Thus the pattern and the meaning become intrfused.
SUMIT ROY from
India
The famous monologue from Shakespeare’s As You Like It, spoken by the melancholy Jaques, gives a list of the seven different stages in a man’s life – infancy, childhood, lover, soldier, justice, old age, and death. This division of human life is sometimes referred to as “seven ages of man”. Keats, however, found in human life four distinct phases, visible with the progress of life from beginning to the end. In his sonnet “The Human Seasons”, he delineates these four stages of life. Comparing the life span of a man with a year, he says that, like in a year, there are four seasons in a man’s life, too. In a man’s life there are four seasons that complete the period, just like the four natural seasons that ‘fill the measure of the year’.
The first period of a man’s life, Keats says, is the ‘lusty Spring’. His youth is compared with the ‘Summer’. He is in his ‘Autumn’ when he reaches his maturer age, i.e., the middle of his life. And when he crawls toward the old age, it is the dismal ‘Winter’ that prevails upon him.
The childhood of a man is a ‘lusty Spring’ because it is strong and vigorous, full of life. The year begins with spring which is a season of freshness and joy. In the same way our life begins with childhood which is fresh and bright, full of promises. This is the age of innocence, totally unsullied, clean and clear – the state of total perfection and loveliness. Just like the sweet flowers of spring that pronounce the onset of the year, our life begins to bloom from our childhood. The mind of childhood is so fresh and fanciful and receptive that it is immediately attracted and charmed by the all beautiful objects. His susceptible mind instantly responds to nature’s call.
This wildness of infancy is afterwards tempered with the warmth of the summer of his youth. His enjoyment of beauty now becomes very moderate. This enjoyment is not like the ‘appetite’ of his childhood when he would greedily gobble whatever he got totally undigested. The mind of youth, rather, loves to ‘ruminate’ his sweet childhood memories and in this way gratifies his hunger. Thus he can enjoy much more profoundly and this enjoyment is almost heavenly. The rumination of ‘youthful thought’ is like a high dreaming, deep and full of meaning. This enjoyment is calm and quiet. The quietness of the age can be compared with a cove which is still and peaceful.
Then comes the Autumn of his life – the age fruitfulness and completeness, an age of total saturation and fulfillment. It is the age of complete repose, when the fluttering wings are folded. The middle-aged man becomes almost idle and indifferent to all things around him. He lives his life listlessly and detaches himself from all charms. The fair things pass by ‘unheeded’. Nothing can attract him anymore. He lives in the ‘mist’ of forgetfulness, unmoved by any pulsation of life. His life now moves with a subterranean flow, almost imperceptibly, like a ‘threshold brook’ – the stream that runs silently and invisibly under the cover of sand.
The year of his life comes to a full circle when he his surprised by the chills of Winter. Just like in winter when everything assumes a deathly look, the life of an old man wears ‘pale misfeatures’. He has to suffer all disgraces and disfeatures, i.e., abnormalities of old life or else he must leave his ‘mortal nature’ or human life.
The most beautiful feature of the poem is, perhaps, Keats’s brilliant use of images in the poem. He not only made the use of apt metaphors drawn from seasons, but he also created very significant images. The image of ruminating the ‘honey’d cud of youthful thought’ is perfectly done. This image evokes in our mind the very act of animal’s chewing the undigested food. The image of a tired bird closing its restless wings is also very beautiful.
The poet’s using the sonnet pattern to portray the four seasons of man is also very justified. The four stanzas each describes a season of life. The short couplet with which the poem ends, precisely describes the brief, insignificant span of old age that ultimately ends with death. Thus the pattern and the meaning become intrfused.
SUMIT ROY from India