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Analysis of “The Human Seasons” by John Keats This sonnet is written in the Shakespearean form and consists of three quatrains and a volta in the final couplet. In the first quatrain, Keats introduces the topic of the four seasons and then elaborates on the “lusty spring.” He finds this to be a healthy time of year where humans can easily enjoy the beauty around them. The spring symbolizes youth and childhood. The poet considers spring to be the start of the year like a childhood is the beginning of a person’s life. Yeats then transitions to autumn after the subject has “chew[ed] the honied cud of fair spring thoughts.” These thoughts of honey and spring soon dissolve as the subject’s health begins to diminish. Autumn represents the part of a human’s life when he leaves the prime months of spring and summer; people start to be unable to complete activities and jobs that they once could. Early autumn is represented in the second quatrain, and then the poem shifts to late November/early December in the third quatrain. These two months represent the last years of a human’s ability to function for himself. They consist of retired days of “idleness” where people will hopefully be “content” to look upon their past achievements. The couplet shifts the poem from fall to winter, thus shifting the subject from a living man to a dead one. Death is the “mortal nature” of all humans and cannot be avoided. Some lines of this poem are written in iambic pentameter, but others include an extra syllable. This varied meter represents the varied speeds at which humans go through the seasons. Some people lose the fitness of their mind and bodies much quicker than others. The enjambment throughout the poem represents the unexpected deaths of people. Like a car wreck or some other accident could remove a person from the earth in the middle of a sentence, many of the lines seem to end in

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