Article: Tomlinson's OCTOBER and Keats's TO AUTUMN.(Critical Essay)(Brief Article)

Charles Tomlinson's short poem "October," first published in his 1978 collection The Shaft, presents a distinctly contemporary response to John Keats's 1819 ode "To Autumn." Both poems set out to characterize the late harvest season, depicting it as a time of final ripening when crops experience the last increment of growth. Keats watches how autumn "fill[s] all fruit with ripeness," "swell[s] the gourd, and plump[s] the hazel shells" (6, 7); Tomlinson in turn remarks that "ripeness" has "filled its brood / Of rinds and rounds" (2-3). He further echoes Keats in identifying the mood of the season as one of "lassitude" (1), subtly reminding readers of Keats's personified ...

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