The Human Seasons

The sonnet I chose was "The Human Seasons" by John Keats

The Human Seasons

Four seasons fill the measure of the year;
There are four seasons in the mind of Man:
He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear
Takes in all beauty with an easy span:
He has his Summer, when luxuriously
Spring's honeyed cud of youthful thought he loves
To ruminate, and by such dreaming high
Is nearest unto heaven: quiet coves
His soul has in its Autumn, when his wings
He furleth close; contented so to look
On mists in idleness -to let fair things
Pass by unheeded as a threshold brook: -
He has his Winter too of pale misfeature,
Or else he would forgo his mortal nature.


This sonnet by Mr. Keats is a Shakespearean sonnet, as evidenced by the rhyme scheme and the location of the turn. However, the slight modification in lines 5-8 is that the rhyme scheme is not strictly CDCD, and it is bent a little bit so that it contains an eye rhyme. We do see the turn happen in the right place, though. The first 12 lines of the poem are spent describing the human seasons that fulfill our lives. Spring represents the happiness of childhood, summer the fun of young adulthood, and fall the spiritual and reflective nature of old age. But the last season, winter, is the turn. It no longer describes life, like the other three because winter represents death in its "pale misfeature" and "mortal nature". I picked this poem because I enjoyed the idea that we have phases of life where we think about and look at different things. The importance of certain things fades in and out and is always changing, an idea I thought was cool and that I very much agree with.