"The Human Season," John Keats

The rhyme scheme is ababcdcdefefgg, and the division is 12 and 2.  This is a Shakespearean (or English) sonnet.  Keats' use of language is archaic to us, but of course it was not to him; as a Romantic he was employing the ordinary usage of his time.  Remember also that in "coves" rhymed with "loves" and "feature" with "nature," tho' just how is not known -- no sound recording in Keats' days.  There is much pathos in this poem about aging; Keats died at only 26.


The Human Seasons
by John Keats

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 forego his mortal nature.