`To Autumn' is a transitional poem which explores the bitter-sweet season of autumn. It is an ode addressed to this time of year (shown by the capitalised use of the word `Autumn'), made up of three equal stanzas with a regular rhythm and structure.

"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."

John Keats was a romantic poet: his language in this poem is pragmatic and sensual. The use of seductive imagery and personification of women created by the words `swell' and `plump' - words associated with pregnancy - give the poem an extremely luxurious feel.

Although Keats celebrates the richness and poignancy of the season, he also celebrates the beauty of decay, life's bitterness, as displayed in the second line of the quote shown above. The alliteration of `fill all...