Hi, everyone.

This is Mr. Chandrapala here, and I'm so looking forward to talking about 'To Autumn' with you.

This is considered one of the great poems of Keats's work, and is a beautiful meditation on mortality, really.

So I'm really looking forward for us to really getting into what this poem is about today and really reflecting on what Keats is trying to say about his own imminent passing and his own feelings about death.

So our outcome for today's lesson is that we can explain how Keats presents the speaker's feelings towards autumn.

Our key words for today's lesson include the noun ode, which is a ceremonious and lyrical poem that celebrates a person, thing, place, or idea.

The verb to wane, which means to weaken or decrease in strength.

The noun harvest, which means the collecting of crops for food.

The noun acceptance, which is the general agreement that something is right, or the way it is supposed to be.

And finally, the noun mortality, which I used a couple of times when explaining the poem right at the start, which is the state of being vulnerable to death.

So we've got two steps for today's lesson.

Our first is going to be to read through the poem.

And to do that, we first need to reckon with what the poem is about and why Keats chooses to focus on autumn.

So I just want you to pause for a second and I want you to either turn to the person next to you or maybe jot down some ideas onto your notepad.

But what ideas come to your mind when you think of the word autumn? I'm just gonna give you a minute to pause the video when I finish speaking.

And I just want you to take a moment just to really reflect.

What do you think of when you think of autumn? Jot some ideas down, talk to the person next to you.

And when you're ready, hit play.

Some lovely discussions there.

And what I was really pleased to think, see, and hear was the fact that so many of you were discussing that idea that actually autumn is this period of the year, this season where we see things starting to turn.

It's a moment of transition.

It's a moment where things are starting to fade a little bit.

So if we're thinking about some of those ideas, you may have considered the colour orange, when the leaves are starting to lose that sort of really luscious green and they're starting to brown, starting to turn into that beautiful orange colour.

You may think about those leaves as part of that.

You may think about autumn as a time of cosiness.

Often, it's associated with this idea of, you know, being close to a fire or, you know, starting to spend more time indoors as the weather begins to turn.

That's partly because the weather begins to turn colder.

Things start to become harder for us to deal with on the outside world.

And so we retreat really into the inside.

And so it is this period of winding down and actually enjoying the small things in life.

Those crisp mornings, where actually things are maybe a little bit more fresh there.

Maybe there's a little bit more cutting nature in the wind, but actually, it is a much cooler time of the year.

The poem's title is 'To Autumn'.

Now, if the poem's focus is autumn, what we need to also reckon with is why Keats would choose to use the word 'to'.

What is that word trying to tell us? And why would it be different if the title is just 'Autumn'? Again, I'm just gonna give you 30 seconds for you to pause the video and discuss with the person next to you.

Why is the poem 'To Autumn'? What does that tell us what the poem is going to be about? Pause the video again, and when you're ready, hit play.

Some lovely, really innovative and creative ideas there, everyone.

So pleased with the way that you were thinking about that.

Loads of people were thinking about that idea of 'to', that word 'to', and actually when we are most likely to use it.

And so many of you discussed that idea.

Well, I'm most likely to use it if I was writing a letter or addressing someone.

And that's absolutely the case here.

Keats is writing to autumn.

It is directed to the season, seemingly.

Laura said, "The 'to' makes it sound as if the poem is written to the season of autumn.

Almost as if the poem, the poet, sorry, is writing a love poem 'To Autumn'." This is partly because this poem is an ode.

Remember, that's one of our key words for today.

An ode is a word which we, sorry, an ode is a poem that is a celebration of a time period or of a particular event, person, or thing.

It is ceremonious and lyrical.

And as I said, celebratory in its nature.

So the question here is, we discussed how the poem is about mortality, how the poem is about this idea that actually things are beginning to wane.

Why do we think Keats might be celebrating 'To Autumn'? Pause the video again and see if you can discuss with your partner why would Keats celebrate autumn and the season 'To Autumn'? Lovely ideas there, everyone.

So what might Keats might be trying to celebrate about in 'To Autumn' is this idea of, it's, as I said earlier, a time of transition.

It's a moment where things are passing from one period to another.

Maybe even thinking about how autumn for a lot of people, I know for us, it's the time when we are going back to school in September.

And actually, therefore, it's almost a time of reflection while we're thinking about what the previous year, academic year had been like, or maybe how our summer had been, and we're sort of starting something different now.

So that could be part of what keeps us trying to celebrate.

We're just gonna have a quick check for understanding here.

And I want you to identify which of the following options makes the poem an ode.

So is it option A, the fact that the poem has three seasons, or sorry, the poem has three stanzas? Option B, the fact that the poem is written in iambic pentameter? Option C, the fact that it was written as a celebration of autumn? Or option D, the fact that it uses an extended metaphor? Pause the video now and see if you can identify which one is correct.

And when you're ready, hit play.

And we're all back in three, two, and one.

Congratulations to everyone who picked C.

An ode is meant to be a celebratory lyrical poem.

And so 'To Autumn' is an ode because it's a celebration of that autumn season.

So what we're now going to do is we're going to read 'To Autumn'.

As we're reading, I want you to use the glossary below to help you understand the poem.

So we've got the words mellow, gourd, conspiring, kernel, winnowing, furrow, gleaner, and wailful.

And as we're reading, I want you just to, if you're unsure about any of those words, just check back to the video because those words will stay up there.

I'm going to read the poem out loud.

I want you to follow along with me using your copies of the Eduqas Anthology, or your own copy of the poem 'To Autumn'.

The poem now as we read 'To Autumn' by John Keats.

"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun, Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round those thatch-eves run, To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core, To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel, to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease, For summer has over-brimmed their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind, Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep, Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers, And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep Steady thy laden head across a brook, Or by a cyder-press, with patient look, Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of spring? Ay, where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too.

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue, Then in a wailful choir, the small gnats mourn Among the river sallows, borne aloft Or sinking in the light wind lives or dies, And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn, Hedge-crickets sing, and now with treble soft, The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft, And gathering swallows twitter in the skies." Take a moment now just to reread that poem for yourselves.

And when you're ready, hit play.

So the first thing that we're going to do is now that we have read through the poem together and you have had the opportunity to read it independently, is I'd like you to discuss with the person next to you, maybe to take some notes down on your page.

How do you think the speaker feels about autumn and why? How would you describe the tone of the poem? These are integral questions to understanding this poem on the first read through.

So really take a moment to try and work out how the speaker feels about autumn.

Because not the entire poem focuses on the season of autumn entirely.

Pause the video now and start having that discussion.

When you're ready, hit play.

Some lovely ideas there, everyone.

I was really glad that people were actually thinking about how Keats compares autumn to the summer, and even asked that question of how autumn views itself in comparison to spring.

It's really important that we understand that.

Keats is understanding that autumn is not seen as the most promising or delightful season, but is still trying to celebrate, almost comfort autumn and try to help autumn to understand, personifying autumn in the process, that it has a lot of value, it's an incredibly important season, and it has its own beauty.

Two of our Oak pupils reflected on these questions.

And Alex said, "Well, the tone of the poem shifts from one of optimism and hopefulness to one of peacefulness and acceptance." And I think that that is such a, first of all, great use of one of our key words today, that word acceptance.

But I think it's such a good reading of it to understand that there is a tranquillity in the way that we read the poem.

Jacob notes that actually, Keats as speaker, "Seems to feel great fondness for the season of autumn.

The poem describes autumn as a lush time in of itself, a time of ripeness and fulfilment." Both of these may be things you've come up with already.

And if they are, you may just wanna note them down just for yourselves.

Even if you didn't get them, please note them down.

When you're ready, hit play.

Two other pupils discussed the tone in the poem.

Who do you think is more correct in this instance? Sam argued, "Well, the tone of the poem shifts from one of peacefulness and acceptance to one of optimism and hopefulness." Whilst Izzy argues, "The tone of the poem shifts from one of optimism and hopefulness to one of peacefulness and acceptance." Lot of the same words being used here, but only one of them is correct.

Pause the video now and see if you can work out which one is right.

Remember, you can always go back to reading the poem.

So checking your understanding before selecting your option.

Take a minute, and when you're ready, hit play.

And everyone back in three, two, and one.

And I'm really pleased to see that so many of us went for Izzy.

As we discussed on that previous slide, it is that idea that the poem shifts from one of optimism and hopefulness to actually accepting the nature of autumn and realising that there is its own beauty to the season.

So we're just now going to move to our practise task.

I'm going to ask you to reread each stanza.

And as you're doing so, I want you to answer the following questions.

So in stanza one, I want you to consider how are the fruits being described in that first stanza? What impression do we get of autumn? In stanza two, I want you to consider how the poet personifies autumn as a woman who brings in the harvest.

Highlight any evidence to support this statement.

So you may want to just write that statement, "The poet personifies autumn as a woman who brings in the harvest." And use that as a key for you to highlight your evidence.

And then in the third and final stanza, I want you to look at how the sounds of autumn are described.

What's the speaker's attitude towards the season in this part of the poem? Pause the video now and have that opportunity to independently practise rereading each stanza and checking your understanding against it.

Once you're ready, hit play, and we'll be able to discuss some of your ideas.

Excellent independent work there, everyone.

I'm so impressed by how many of you are going back and making really thoughtful additions to your annotations of the poem.

Hopefully, we'll be able to extend them in this next little section now.

So make sure to have a different colour pen maybe in hand or at least making sure that you've got something to write with so that you can add anything that we sort of bring out in this next part of the lesson.

So you may have written in terms of how the fruits are described in the first stanza, that the fruits in the first stanza are described as being incredibly ripe, the fact that they are swell, ripe, plump, brimmed, perhaps suggesting that autumn is the most fruitful of the seasons and therefore, the most fulfilling of all seasons.

In the first stanza, we see how bountiful and generous autumn is as a season.

In the second question, I asked you to highlight evidence to support the idea that the poet personifies autumn as a woman who brings in the harvest.

You may have chosen to focus on the phrase sitting careless, hair soft-lifted, thy hook spares the next swath, thy laden head, and thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

There's some really interesting presentation of this woman, this personification of autumn, in that she's sitting careless, and yet there is a beauty in that idea that her hair is soft-lifted.

And yet, there is maybe a kind of idleness maybe in the fact that she watches the last oozings.

Nothing is slow-paced here.

Sorry, nothing is fast-paced here.

Even the oozing's quite slow, quite luxurious, really, almost relaxed in how things work.

And the woman herself, the thou, is just watching.

Not necessarily doing anything, just allowing things to take their course.

So we can see that Keats personifies autumn as a woman gathering in the harvest and making the cider perhaps to show the beauty in the harvest and the fruitfulness of the season.

Again, anything you need, just add it into your annotations now.

Some lovely ideas there, everyone.

Really pleased to see the amount of work that you're getting into here.

And finally, for the third question, you may have written something along these lines.

So we were talking again about the sounds of autumn in that final stanza, and the speaker's attitudes towards the season.

You may have pointed out that the speaker seems grateful for autumn.

They initially seem nostalgic for the summer, but then they start to appreciate the sounds of autumn as unique and beautiful in their own right.

The stanza ends with this quiet acceptance of the unique calm and the peacefulness of autumn with the image of autumn swallows and a robin.

And it's one of the things that I think Keats does really well in that final stanza even.

That moment of, in that last line, the twittering of the swallows, just bringing that sense of almost bird song and calm into the poem.

Again, if there's anything you haven't got, please make sure to add it now.

We're next moving on to the poem as a metaphor.

So a couple of things you may not have known about Keats.

Keats was medically-trained, cared for his brother as he was dying of tuberculosis.

His brother was dying of tuberculosis.

And tragically, Keats contracted the same illness and knew he was going to die from it.

Using this information, how do you think Keats's poem is about expressing an appreciation for just autumn? Why might Keats have written a poem about accepting that natural transition between the two seasons? Pause the video and discuss with the person next to you how and why Keats would've done this.

When you're ready, hit play.

Some lovely ideas there.

So Keats's poem can be read as a metaphor for accepting one's own death.

So when would the autumn of a person's life be? Again, just pause the video and give yourself some thinking time.

When do we associate autumn in a person's life? When you're ready, hit play.

So autumn in a person's life, I often think about this.

I know that if I'm thinking about some of my family members, I may even talk about them as being in the twilight of their lives, just not quite the end of the day, but definitely approaching that point where they are moving into that state of, or they are in a state of transition, moving from, you know, the full vigour of the day into a quieter period of their lives.

And autumn, I think, is a similar way of thinking about that.

Alex said, "If we take winter to be a person's end of life or their death, the autumn might be the stage of life slightly before that when a person's life begins to wane.

The person might start to slow down and prepare for the winter of their life." So it's that idea that we are moving from maybe, you know, being incredibly active, incredibly vibrant, to just slowing the pace a little bit.

Because actually we can't keep up maybe with the same expectations or the same sort of levels of activity that we had previously.

So how do we think Keats feels about the autumn of his own life? He's written a whole poem, 'To Autumn', about the season.

What do you think that's actually meant to reflect about his own feelings about his autumn? Pause the video.

And when you're ready, hit play.

Some really thoughtful responses there.

I really liked how so many of you were getting into that idea of actually how Keats is trying to almost comfort himself, reassure himself, realise that there is a beauty in this time of his life, even though it's maybe beyond the point of his most exciting or his most sort of vibrant period.

Really interesting ideas there.

So we can infer that Keats's attitudes towards the autumn of his own life from the following lines: "Where are the songs of spring? Ay, where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too." I want you to pause it and I want you to consider why we think Keats is reflecting, what Keats is reflecting on here.

Who is the "thou" he is speaking to? Consider the title of the poem when you're thinking about that.

And what do you think the "too" suggests about Keats's attitude towards his waning life? Pause the video and take a second to talk to the person next to you.

Jot down some ideas.

And when you're ready, hit play.

Really thoughtful ideas there, everyone.

We're gonna go through on the next slide what those lines may mean.

So you might have said, looking at the first line, "Where are the songs of spring? Ay, where are they?" that Keats seems to momentarily yearn for his earlier days.

This idea that if autumn is the point where we are slowing down, it's the wane of our life, then actually our spring days, our youth, is when we are at our most excitable.

There's seemingly endless opportunity and loads of things are happening at once.

Everything is in bloom.

But he's yearning that by asking that rhetorical question.

"Where are the songs of spring? Ay, where are they?" And this is him almost reflecting on it, thinking about it almost sadly, mourning it before his life becomes clouded by his tuberculosis.

But then we may look at the final line of that, those two lines, the second line.

And think about the start, "Think not of them." Well, there, Keats is seemingly dismissing those thoughts.

He's putting them away out of his head and acknowledging the futility, the pointlessness of mourning.

And instead, he comforts himself with "Thou hast thy music too." He acknowledges the beauty of autumn as well as spring.

And he understands that this next period of his life will be beautiful as well, but in a different way.

He's accepted that this is the way things are.

And he has to accept that he's approaching the end of his life.

If there's anything you wanna get down here, pause the video.

Just make sure you get those annotations.

It's a really important pair.

Excellent work there, everyone.

Really impressed with your work on the poem as a metaphor so far.

So we're just gonna have a quick check for understanding here.

Just simple true or false.

Autumn in the poem could be a metaphor for the time before death.

Telling me if it's true or false in three, two, and one.

Well done to all of us who said true.

You're absolutely correct.

I'm really glad we've been listening and been paying attention.

Excellent work.

But can we justify that answer? Is it true because Keats may be trying to show that the time before death can be as beautiful and as fulfilling as one's earlier days? Or is it because autumn is a metaphor for death in the poem, and Keats may have been trying to warn people about the passing of time? Pause the video again.

Can you identify which one is correct? This is a harder question than just the true or false.

The justification always is.

And when you're ready, hit play.

And we are going to be selecting answers in three, two, and one.

Fantastic, everyone.

I'm so glad that all of you have gone for A.

Keats is trying to show that the time before death can be beautiful and fulfilling just as much as the spring days.

So we need to bear that in mind.

Make sure you've got that annotation if you haven't already.

And when you are, let's go.

So we're gonna make sure that we practise all of this knowledge.

You've done so well.

I've been so pleased with your understanding.

I want you to complete the following sentences just to really make sure we crystallise this information.

The first sentence I want you to complete is Keats's poem to autumn is about.

And then the poem could be considered a metaphor for.

Perhaps in writing, Keats was.

What do we think he's trying to do here? And from this poem, I learn or understand that.

As you're doing this, I want you to try and use those key words that we discussed right at the start of today's lesson.

So those words of ode and wane and harvest and acceptance and mortality.

Really trying to bring them in just to really make sure that they're working within your explanations.

'Cause if we can do them well now, if we can use those words well now, we're gonna be really confident using them later down the line in essays and exams. Let's take a moment now, pause the video, and complete those four sentences using those key words.

Let's go, everyone.

So excellent work.

And I'm so impressed with the way that you've done that.

Let's take some feedback and even improve those already incredible answers.

So some ideas that we can think of.

"Keats's poem 'To Autumn' is about celebrating the fruitfulness and ripeness of autumn.

The poem is an ode to autumn, so Keats is expressing his appreciation for this season of the year, the season of the harvest." Make sure that you've got anything that you have maybe missed out here, making sure to include those words ode and autumn and harvest.

Harvest being so crucial.

It's that point where they're bringing everything in, the fruits of our labours are coming together.

Secondly, "The poem could be considered a metaphor for human mortality.

The passing of time in one's life as one grows older or approaches death." Remember to make sure that we are getting those notes.

You've all done so well, it'd be shame to let any of this go through.

And then finally, "Perhaps in writing the poem, Keats was coming to terms with the idea of his own death.

We know that Keats had contracted tuberculosis, and due to his medical training, would've been aware of his own condition.

Perhaps, in writing the poem, Keats was finding acceptance in his waning health.

And from this poem, I understand or I've learned that life is short, so every moment should be appreciated and cherished." Sometimes you do these lessons and you just realise that you're just, they're not English lessons, they're life lessons.

Make sure that you've got anything down that you need from here.

And when you're ready, we'll move on.

I have cherished this time with you.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Let's just quickly run through our summary for understanding 'To Autumn'.

Keats's poem is an ode to autumn, a celebration of the penultimate season of the year.

The poem celebrates the bountiful and fruitful nature of the season of the harvest.

And arguably, the poem is a metaphor for human mortality.

In the poem, autumn could represent the later years of a person's life or the time before their death when their life begins to wane.

But Keats wrote this poem perhaps as a way of coming to terms with his imminent death.

He's not sad that it's over, he's happy that it's happened.

And I am so glad that I happened to spend this half an hour with you.

Thank you so much for joining me, everyone.

And I hope to see you again very soon.

Bye for now.