Which author composed the poem ‘To Autumn’ in 1820, that begins, “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness?”

In 1820, the English poet John Keats composed a poem titled ‘To Autumn’ that begins, “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.”

It is an ode to the fall season coming from one of the the greatest classic Romantic era poets. Although he is now seen as part of the British Romantic literary tradition, in his own lifetime Keats would not have been associated with other major Romantic poets.

This poem is a rich description of the beauty of autumn that focuses on both its lush and sensual fruitfulness and the melancholy hint of shorter days ahead. Typical of the Romantics, Keats underlined extreme emotion with natural imagery.

Keats ends his poem evoking the closing of the autumn season and finding a parallel in the beauty of an early-evening sunset. His words depict the haunting beauty in the quiet winding down into winter.

Keats was born in London in 1795 and lived a short life, dying of tuberculosis at the age of 25 in 1821. He was said to have been born in his maternal grandfather’s stable, the Swan and Hoop, but there is no real evidence for his birthplace.

He published 54 poems, in three slim volumes and a few magazines with his fame growing rapidly after his death. By the end of the century he was placed in the canon of English literature.