On the Grasshopper and the Cricket

John Keats

‘The poetry of earth is never dead.’

BACKGROUND

• Keats was born in England in 1795 and died of tuberculosis when he was just 25, by which time he had composed an astonishing amount of powerful poetry. This poem was written when he was 21.

• The poem was written as a response to a sort of competition between himself and his great friend, Leigh Hunt, as to who could write the best verse, in a short time, on a specified topic.

• Keats won on this occasion, although he generously avowed that he preferred the other poet’s attempt.

SUBJECT:

Grasshopper

Cricket

•How would you describe these two creatures?•Where might you find them?•The grasshopper is a diurnal insect, the cricket nocturnal.•They both like warmth

TONE:

• How does the poet create the atmosphere of summer in the first 8 lines?

• How does the poet create the atmosphere of winter in the last 7 lines?

• What is the overall tone of the poem?

IMAGERY:

Comment on the effect of the following phrases:

• ‘When all the birds are faint with the hot sun’

• ‘…a voice will run from hedge to hedge…’

• ‘he takes the lead in summer luxury’

• ‘He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed’

• ‘…when the frost has wrought a silence’

• ‘And seems to one in drowsiness half-lost’

IMAGERY:

• What is meant by the line ‘The poetry of earth is never dead’?

• What is the effect of the repetition ‘The poetry of earth is ceasing never?’

• Why does Keats leave the word ‘never’ until the end of the line? (the grammatical structure is rather unusual)

• Comment on the Aural (relating to sound) quality of the final line; ‘The grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.’

FORM

• It is in the Petrarchan or Italian Sonnet form.

• The original Italian sonnet form divides the poem's 14 lines into two parts, an octave (first eight lines) and a sestet (last six lines). The rhyme scheme for the octave is typically abbaabba. There are a few possibilities for the sestet, including cdecde, cdcdcd, and cdcdee. Which one is used by Keats?

• Like Milton, who also used this form, Keats wrote sonnets about many different subjects, not specifically, as early sonnet writers tended to, about love.

FEELING:

• The sound evokes memories of the grasshopper in the last line and takes the reader to the beginning of the poem again. In what ways does a consideration of this help to understand the full meaning of the first line, 'The poetry of earth is never dead’?

• Explain your own view of what Keats is trying to say through this poem in one or two sentences.