Understanding 'To Autumn' by John Keats
I can explain how Keats presents the speaker's feelings towards autumn.
Understanding 'To Autumn' by John Keats
I can explain how Keats presents the speaker's feelings towards autumn.
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- Keats’ 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.
- Arguably, the poem is a metaphor for human mortality.
- In the poem, autumn could represent the later years of a person’s life - when their life begins to wane.
- Keats wrote this poem perhaps as a way of coming to terms with his imminent death.
Keywords
Ode - a ceremonious and lyrical poem that celebrates a person, thing, place or idea
Wane - to weaken/ decrease in strength
Harvest - the collecting of crops for food
Acceptance - the general agreement that something is right, or the way it is supposed to be
Mortality - the state of being vulnerable to death
Common misconception
Students may not recognise that this poem is a metaphor for human mortality and the approach of death.
Keats wrote this poem after he had been diagnosed with tuberculosis. Perhaps this poem was his way of accepting his own approaching death.
To help you plan your year 11 english lesson on: Understanding 'To Autumn' by John Keats, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 11 english lesson on: Understanding 'To Autumn' by John Keats, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
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The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 4 english lessons from the Poetry anthology continued unit, dive into the full secondary english curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Equipment
You will need access to a copy of the Eduqas poetry anthology for this lesson.
Content guidance
- Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
Supervision
Adult supervision recommended
Licence
Lesson video
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Starter quiz
6 Questions
Exit quiz
6 Questions
a lyrical poem that celebrates a person, thing or place
to weaken/ decrease in strength
the collecting of crops for food
the general agreement that something is right, or the way it should be
the state of being vulnerable to death