“And seems to one in drowsiness half lost, 

The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.”

What does the poet try to convey with these last two lines of the poem?

The last two lines of the poem ‘The Poetry of Earth’ bring out the theme of the poem- the eternity of nature. The cricket’s chirp seems to be almost similar to that of the grasshopper’s. So in the last two lines, Keats very artfully blends the octave and the sestet. A person half lost in drowsiness, either due to his old age (as winter symbolises old age) or for the cold winter evening, cannot differentiate between the robust song of the grasshopper making merry about the new-mown mead’ and the cricket’s shrill song emanating from the warm stove. Thus, continuity has been established in nature. Though the messenger of the season changes from the grasshopper to the cricket, their song remains the same. They celebrate the life-force buzzing in nature. Pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, life and death are the two sides of the same coin. Similarly, the beautiful summer and the gloomy winter both are part of nature and like the grasshopper and the cricket, both make up the ‘poetry of earth’.

“On a lone winter evening”-How does the poet describe the loneliness and silence of winter?

In The Poetry of Earth’, John Keats sketches a clear picture of winter. At the onset of winter, the cricket takes up the charge from the grasshopper. The weather becomes harsh. Silence pervades the land that is engulfed by frost, chilling cold and snow. The birds and animals do not leave their nests. At that time when everything seems to have become frozen, the cricket appears, to sing and spread the song of earth amidst the death-like frozen numbness. Life gets restored to the land. To a person, half in drowsiness, the cricket and its song seems to be that of the grasshopper.

How does Keats describe the poetry of summer season in this poem ‘The Poetry of Earth’.

Show, after Keats, that the poetry of earth never comes to an end.

What picture of summer is presented in ‘The Poetry of Earth’? How has it been carried onto the picture of winter?

How does Keats present winter in his sonnet?

How can we infer that the Grasshopper enjoys performing its duties in summer? Who steps in its shoes to carry on the poetry of earth? What effect does the latter create on a human being?

What concept do you get about Keats’ notion of beauty as revealed in the sonnet ‘The Poetry of Earth’

What does the poet assert in his poem ‘The Poetry of Earth’ and how?

Comment on the use of symbolism in this poem ‘The Poetry of Earth’

Why does Keats feel that the poetry of earth is never dead?

What pictures of the two seasons does Keats draw in ‘The Poetry of Earth? How are the two pictures related?

Identify the voices of poetry in the poem ‘The Poetry of Earth’. How does Keats establish continuity through these voices?

Why does the poet choose the sonnet form for this poem ‘The Poetry of Earth’? Give reasons.

Keats’ ‘The Poetry of Earth’ is a poem that depicts the continuous celebration through the style of seasons’. Justify the above statement.

What idea do you get about Keats as a Romantic poet of Nature poet in the poem ‘The Poetry of Earth’?

Do you think ‘The Poetry of Earth’ is a romantic poem?

Name the poet who composed The Poetry of Earth’. What is meant by ‘The Poetry of Earth’? How does the poet read The Poetry of Earth’?

What do the grasshopper and the cricket metaphorically stand for in this poem? How they contribute to the earth’s poetry?

Keats has used sensuous imagery to describe the natural world with care and precision. -How far do you agree with this statement?