A close reading of 'To Autumn' by John Keats and 'Halcyon Days' by Walt Whitman focusing on time and humanity's place in Nature. Entered in 'The Estelle Prize for English'.
Keats and Whitman create for their readers an understanding of Nature’s timelessness in To Autumn and Halcyon Days, but in doing so, highlight the transitory nature of the life of the individual. In this sense, both poets create an experience of time for the reader as an individual, emphasising the sharp contrast between the constancy and sustainability of the natural world in which we live, and the ephemerality and destruction within it, in which the reader, and all humanity, is inevitably complicit. Both poems assert that we, unlike Nature, are painfully aware of our mortality as individuals, and this is presented by both poets as our tragic flaw. The pastoral idyll that both poets describe is however not haunted by such awareness and as a result seems to possess a supposedly eternal ability to regenerate, and simply seems to exclude humankind from this regeneration. A 21st century reading of this sheds new light on Nature’s immortality, however, as the understanding of time for the reader alters; both poems now seem to pose a warning that if we continue the destruction of our environment, if we cannot consider ourselves at one with Nature, we will destroy not only Nature’s immortality, but also our own capacity to be immortal as a part of Nature.
An ecocritical reading of these poems offers us the idea that in separating man and beast, as Keats and Whitman seem to do, we hinder our own view, as humans, of the ‘time’ we have on Earth. Humans are inherently a part of nature, and yet seem to deny this as we consider ourselves, and our short lives, as independent from Nature - as is evident in the melancholy tone of the last stanza of To Autumn, with its imagery of death, as Keats depicts the “soft-dying day”, the “mourn[ing]” of the gnats, which are either “borne aloft or sinking” by the wind that either “lives or dies”. This stanza shows a contrast between the ease and beauty of individual deaths in the natural world, and the fear and dread of the human individual of their own mortality. This is particularly emphasised in the tone of the poetic voice as the sun goes down on “the soft-dying day”, seemingly a metaphor for the inevitable death of the individual as it approaches, and the beauty of Nature’s “barred clouds” as they “bloom...and touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue”. We see the fatal flaw of humanity: our own belief that with our body, our soul dies too, that our life cannot be carried on in the continuation of humanity. This creation of a sense of loss is further emphasised in the use of rhetorical questions with which Keats begins this third and final stanza: “Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they?”. These desperate interrogatives that seem to come from the poet himself address the reader personally, and once again parallel human life with life of the natural world, rather than viewing all life as one. The way in which the poetic voice in To Autumn desperately searches for the routine of Nature is similar to the way in which Burns’ mouse is at a loss when his nest is turned over by a plough, and Burns observes the “panic” in his “breastie” (To A Mouse, Robert Burns). This comparison conveys that man and beast are both, as Burns asserts, “poor, earth-born companion[s], an’ fellow mortal[s]”, and readers of both poems gain an understanding of the shared plights of man and beast, who, despite seeming different, suffer in the same way. This notion is made particularly clear as Burns proposes that “The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, Gang aft agley, An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, For promis'd joy!”; Burns is emphasising that, despite our differences, man and beast both suffer, but that the latter is “blest” that “the present only toucheth” them, they do not, as man does, “backward cast [their] e'e, On prospects drear!”, nor do they look “forward” as man does, and “guess an' fear!”. The alliance between man and beast that Burns presents us with, as they take comfort in sharing the bleakness of the world in which we live, is similarly presented by Keats in To Autumn; in this ode, which is seemingly used to praise the natural world, Keats clearly conveys the detachment between the nature and humankind as a result of their inequities in endurance, and man’s fear of his mortality. The structure of 3 stanzas leaves something to be desired by the reader; we demand a cyclical structure, and the clear indication of late summer in the first stanza, autumn in the second stanza and winter with the beginning of spring in the third stanza does not satisfy this. All seasons are recognised but we do not return to the point at which Keats starts; by doing this Keats seems to highlight the transience of man in the face of Nature. Burns, like Keats and Whitman, comments on the self-inflicted fatality of man, as he highlights our disadvantageous and narcissistic tendency to be concerned with our respective lives, deaths, pasts and futures, effectively expressing the “blissful halcyon days” of which Whitman also conveys, where the “victories of politics or war”, and the narcissism of man are absent. In doing so, Burns and Whitman allow the reader to experience being an observer of the pitiful and frantic attempt of man to cling onto life, rather than being complicit in this attempt, which humankind is inclined to do.
This quality of humankind, to crave immortality, is a theme that is prevalent in literature. As far back as Greek mythology, we have feared our individual mortality as a weakness - Achilles’ heel, (and therefore his mortality) for example, is his hamartia - and yet Keats conveys this conceited concern for our own life as the real ‘hamartia’ of man, not his individual immortality. The mortal “bees”, “gnats”, “full-grown lambs”, “hedge-crickets”, “red-breast” and “swallows” are not haunted by their own mortality, but form, in the viewpoint of the narrative voice, a part of immortal Nature. Keats conveys to the reader an understanding of the true fault of man; that he thinks of his life as singular, and not part of a whole, of Nature, and he therefore cannot achieve immortality. Emerson’s theory of a “common heart”, of the unity of the souls of all beings, which is presented in his essay, The Over-Soul, is particularly important to consider here; if man considers his soul as spiritually united with the souls of all beings, then he can live forever, not parallel to the natural world but spiritually immersed in it, because this over-soul “Can crowd eternity into an hour, Or stretch an hour to eternity”, and man’s engagement in this therefore disproves Auden’s assertion that “you cannot conquer Time”, (As I Walked Out One Evening, W.H. Auden) while Nature’s “deep river [runs] on”. In this sense, Keats creates an understanding of time as everlasting, and therefore man’s place in it everlasting; but makes clear that the latter is dependent on the ego of an individual. To achieve everlasting life, man must see himself as part of a whole, not as an entity separate from others. A 21st century reading of To Autumn therefore brings up issues that perhaps otherwise would not have been so prominent; as the impact of climate change starts to take effect, more and more we consider the relationship between humankind and nature. To consider them separate, unlike Emerson’s theory, leaves humans as mere observers, and absolves humanity of the environmental crimes we have committed that have led us to this stage in climate change. If we consider ourselves at a distance from the natural world, then we consider ourselves at a distance from the destruction of it, which, in reality is our self-destruction.
This is further emphasised in Whitman’s Halcyon Days; the very title indicates a disharmony of man’s “turbulent passions” and “honor’d middle age”. Whitman’s choice of the word ‘halcyon’, which by definition ‘denot[es] a period of time in the past that was idyllically happy' (The Oxford Dictionary), is an indication of the meaning of the poem; he seems to highlight in this word choice the destruction of “the happiest days of all” by man. There is a sense of the perpetuity of Nature emphasised in the asyndeton of the poem up until its final two lines; Whitman seems to suggest here that due to the “turbulen[ce]” and destruction of man’s existence, it is impossible to return to the “teeming quietest” days of pastoral idyll without leaving man behind, and separating him from the natural world. Whitman’s use of the intensifiers “freshier, balmier air” further emphasise the beauty and calm of the natural world, as he creates for the reader a pastoral idyll even more serene than his depiction of the “gorgeous, vapory, silent hues” that “cover the evening sky”. His use of this asyndetic phrase, paralleled with the asyndetic phrase that follows it, “softness, fulness[sic], rest” puts expressive emphasis on both; Whitman is portraying the stages of the transient human life in the latter phrase, in comparison with the ending of just one day in the natural world, and in doing so, signifies the fleeting quality of the life of the human individual, as Keats does. As he parallels “the days tak[ing] on a mellower light” and the process of “life wan[ing]”, the poet presents to the reader a separation of humankind and nature, as he creates a sense of glory in the “quietest, happiest days of all”, when mankind’s “victories of politics or war” are absent from the earth. In doing so, Whitman conveys to the reader a sense of our ephemerality if we consider ourselves independent of the world in which we live. He presents us with the immortality of nature in contrast to the mortality of the individual, and in doing so seems to highlight, much like Keats and Burns, the pitiful and narcissistic quality of human existence; the quality of fearing one’s own death.
The use of imagery by both Keats and Burns of beauty and serenity to describe the natural world and the cyclical quality of it does however seem to have a foreboding undertone, as despite the images of prosperity in the “fruitfulness” of the land which, with “the maturing sun” will “load and bless” the earth, humanity is excluded from these images of prosperity and cycles. “Mists and mellow fruitfulness” are “close bosom-friend” to this sun, and are “conspiring with him”; this image, while portraying the beauty of the natural world through personification of it, seems to, in fact, exclude humanity as the elements collude. Keats’ personification in this first stanza seems to distance man from Nature rather than bring them together, as does the second stanza where once again Autumn continues to be personified but also continues to not interact with humanity, as, despite many having “seen thee oft amid thy store”, Autumn sits “careless” and calm, “hair soft-lifted”, or “sound asleep”, or with its “laden head” “steady”, or “with patient look”. Keats, in this constant personification suggests a distance between man and Nature despite their similarities (which he emphasises through this personification). Like Burns, Keats gives the reader the experience of observing Nature, but also being observed by Nature, as it “watchest the last oozings hours by hours.” The poet creates for the reader an understanding of the temporality of the poems as he conveys once again the idea that Nature and man, despite having plights in common, are separated by a difference in perspective. Keats allows the reader to experience the perspective of immortal Nature, as it observes the man’s fear of his immortality, unable to interact with man due to his inherent egotistical quality.
Another of Whitman’s poems exemplifies the same thematic concerns; The Beasts, which praises the “placid and self-contain’d” quality of the “animals” once again separates Nature from mankind. Despite the poetic voice which expresses a desire to be at one with the natural world and the animals in it that “do not sweat and whine about their condition” as humans do, once again the poet, perhaps symbolising mankind, “stand[s] and look[s] at them long and long”; even when man desires to be at one with Nature, he is still distanced from it. Similar to the poetic voice in Burns’ To a Mouse, which expresses that they are “truly sorry Man’s dominion had broken Nature’s social union”, humankind recognises the distance between Nature and himself, the reason of this being man’s fear of his mortality, and yet is unable to change, unable to align his soul with the souls of the natural world and therefore be afforded the opportunity to live forever as a part of Nature.
The repetition of the same notion in the work of three different poets, the notion of man’s essential weakness - that he fears for his own life, and cannot accept mortality as part of the natural world - in itself creates an experience of time for the reader. The reader is led to realise that Emerson’s idea of the Over-soul, which gives humankind immortality, appears to function. As in Ecclesiastes, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.” This proclamation of an eternal lack of originality might at first seem melancholic, but mankind can find comfort in sharing plights. The poets, Keats, Whitman and Burns repeat the same idea, the same concern that traverses all mankind, and due to this, all our souls are immortalised, as we share a common fear that will live on in humans to come. The reader is therefore offered not only an understanding of the relationship of time with man and Nature, but also an experience of time, as the reader themself is immortalised in their recognition of their fear of their own mortality as their greatest weakness, and in this they experience comfort, as poets Whitman, Burns and Keats also recognise this fear.
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