To Autumn (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 the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd 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 o'er-brimm'd 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-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd 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 cider-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 as 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.

This ode is the last poem by John Keats, and is among his most successful. It is hailed by many to be the most perfect poem of the English language. Unlike the regular ode, with 10 lines every stanza, this one features 3 stanzas of 11 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDEDCCE for the first stanza, and ABAB CDECDDE for the following two. The ode is generally in iambic pentameter.
The theme for this poem is the growth and beauty the season. The first stanza describes autumn's relationship with the sun, ripening fruits and blooming flowers with its aid. The second stanza personifies Autumn as a goddess, "sitting careless on a granary floor", and watch the fruits of her own work. In the last stanza, the end is approaching, as well as death.
In Line #1, the alliteration of "m" in "mists" and "mellow" is used.
The three "to"'s (Line #4. 6, 7) are a use of repetition.
The second stanza, beginning from its second line, is a long personification of Autumn as a goddess.
In Line #16 (5th of 2nd stanza), "like a gleaner" is a simile.
The third stanza continues the personification, advising Autumn to "think not of" the "songs of Spring".
Line #25 (soft-dying day), 27 (small gnats mourn), 31 (hedge-cricket sing) are further examples of personification.