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

In ‘The Poetry of Earth’ Keats presents a beautiful picture of summer and presents the grasshopper as the poet of summer. The sun is so hot that the birds, feeling exhausted and languishing in the intolerable heat, become silent and take refuge in cool places under the shades of trees. Just then the grasshopper enters the scene to keep the song going. As he takes the lead, his voice is heard from one hedge to another. The blazing summer heat fails to deter his merriment. He goes on hailing nature while the air is filled with the smell of new-mown grasses in the meadows. When he feels tired, he rests under some pleasant weed. Again he sets out to sing with renewed vigour. Though everything seems to be at standstill in the scorching heat, the poet of summer keeps the poetry of earth alive all through the season with rejuvenated life-force.

In winter, the grasshopper’s role is played by the cricket who continues celebrating the music of earth spreading warmth in frosty winter evenings.


How does Keats present winter in his sonnet?

According to Keats, in winter, the poetry of earth can be heard in the chirping of a cricket. The winter evening arrives with its desolate and gloomy surroundings. The ground gets covered with frost and a stony silence prevails everywhere. Yet, breaking the silence, a cricket keeps chirping about the warm fireside. His joyous song permeates the surroundings, becoming louder every moment. It seems to have no corporeal presence and so the poet feels it is the voice of nature that has thus been manifested. In contrast to the lifeless weather, the happy chirping of the cricket sounds thrilling and it infuses new energy to one’s soul. To the one dozing off by the fireside, the cricket’s song appears to be a continuation of the song of the grasshopper.