ABOUT THE POET:

• John Keats was born on 31 October 1795 in London and died of tuberculosis in Rome
on 23 February 1821, aged 25.
• Despite his short life and career, Keats’s poetry had a significant impact on the
Romantic movement. His use of vivid imagery, rich language, and explored poignant
themes such as mortality and beauty have left a legacy.
• The Romantics were focused on nature and the importance of the individual. They
believed that people should live to fulfil ideals rather than being bound by the rules of
society.
• One critic wrote of Keats: ‘By force of genius, in four brief years he had triumphed over
all obstacles and won acknowledgment as a great poet.’
• Keats portrayed the beauty of nature and its capacity to bring joy in his poems.
• In this poem he praises the continuous beauty of nature by describing the song of two
insects, the grasshopper and the cricket.
• The poem was written in 1816 in response to a sort of competition between himself and
his great friend Leigh Hunt as to who could write the best verse in the shortest time.
• Both poets had to write a sonnet on a pre-agreed topic in 15 minutes – Keats won the
competition.
On the grasshopper and cricket – John Keats
The poetry of earth is never dead:
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;
That is the Grasshopper’s – he takes the lead 5
In summer luxury, - he has never done
With his delights; for when tired out with fun
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.
The poetry of earth is ceasing never:
On a lone winter evening, when the frost 10
Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills
The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever,
And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,
The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.
 SUMMARY OF THE POEM:

• This poem portrays the poet’s love for nature and beauty. He celebrates the
‘poetry of earth’ – the music of nature which is omnipresent and continuous.
• The speaker has introduced two insects, as the title suggests, to represent the
vitality and joyous mood of nature even in the scorching heat of summer and in
the bleak and bitter cold of winter.
• The octave is set in summer. Even when the birds are hiding from the summer
heat, the grasshopper sings his song from the hedges and fields. When he is
tired of singing, he rests in a shady patch of weeds.
• The sestet is set in winter. When winter arrives all creatures shelter form the
cold, loneliness and silence appear to reign. However, the cricket’s song emerges
and emphasises the persistent quality of nature. To the person dozing off, the
songs of the grasshopper and the cricket sound the same. These songs are linked
as they are part of nature’s persistent and loving force – ‘The poetry of earth is
ceasing never’.
 TYPE AND STRUCTURE:

• The poem is an Italian or a Petrarchan sonnet, it consists of 14 lines.

• It is divided into and octave of eight line, and a sestet of six lines.
• The rhyme scheme is abbaabba cdecde.
• It is written in iambic pentameter.
• The octave presents the main idea of the poem, and the sestet acts as a
conclusion to and an elaboration on the idea presented in the octave.
TITLE:

• The ‘On’ in the title tells us that this poem will

be about a grasshopper and a cricket.
• Although these are two seemingly unimportant
insects, they contain within their song, the
never-ending poetry of the world.
• There is never a time when the world is without
beauty or song.
• The grasshopper is the one singing in the hot
summer when the heat has tired out the
chirping birds; while the cricket sings during
the cold winter to prove that nature is still alive.
 POSSIBLE THEMES:

• The enduring beauty of nature – The sonnet describes the physical world and
its natural beauty. Whatever season we are in, there is always life, beauty and
happiness to be found. The natural sounds are the voices or poetry of nature,
and nature speaks to us through them. This theme speaks of nature’s eternal
delight and its persistent presence.
• Hope and persistence – The sonnet is about hope/persistence, it symbolises
beauty and endurance. Both the grasshopper and the cricket are symbols of
hope. They continue in their daily rituals even when other creatures cannot. They
provide everyone with the hope that no matter how hard the situation is, there is
always a way to overcome harsh conditions.
• Immortality – The poem is about the eternal delight of the beauty of nature. The
sonnet’s message is that the beauty of nature, endurance of life and love of
poetry will never die – these things are an eternal, continuous process.
 TONE AND MOOD:

• A joyful/happy and celebratory tone or mood is created by the beauty of nature

(irrespective of the season), the sound of the birds’ songs and the buzz of insects.
• The tone is created mainly by the voices of the grasshopper and the cricket. They
are symbolic of life, beauty, and hope.
• The harshness of the summer heat is softened by the cooling trees and beautiful,
green scenery.
• The harshness of a lonely, cold winter scene is softened by the warmth of the fire
and the singing cricket.
OCTAVE: Line 1: The poetry of earth is never dead:

Metaphor – ‘The poetry of earth’ =

the speaker refers to sounds made
by nature and its inhabitants (plants,
insects, birds, etc.).
These sounds are always alive, they
never stop (‘is never dead’).
Seasons may change, singers will
be different, but the music (‘poetry’)
of earth will go on – nature
continues to persist.
The use of the colon (:) indicates
that the rest of the sonnet will be an
explanation of this statement.
 Line 2: When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
Line 3: And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
Line 4: From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;

The octave is set in the heat of

summer.
It is so hot that the birds have fallen
silent, they feel weak and exhausted
(‘faint’) in the extreme heat; but they
are not left in the heat; nature
provides the shade of cool trees in
which to hide and take shelter.
While the birds are hiding and it is too
hot to sing, the music of the earth
does not come to an end. Nature
presents another singer in the form of
the grasshopper.
The grasshopper takes over from the
birds and makes sure the
world/nature is never silent.
 Line 2: When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
Line 3: And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
Line 4: From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;
The movement of the grasshopper creates energy –
despite the heat his voice ‘will run / From hedged to
hedge’ and even across the meadow/grassland
(‘new-mown mead’).
Notice the speaker’s confident use of the future
tense: The voice is not just being heard now, it will
always be heard, it is a constant thread that will run
through even unpleasant time (the heat, in this case).
There is a thread/strand of beauty in nature that is
never broken. If we listen attentively, we will always
hear the song of nature/the world.
The setting of the first quatrain is a comfortable
English countryside scene, a domestic landscape,
not some idyllic secluded mountainous landscape.
This shows the speaker’s faith in the enduring,
consoling beauty of nature. Eternal beauty runs right
through the (sometimes uncomfortable) day-to-day
world.
 Line 5: That is the Grasshopper’s – he takes the lead
Line 6: In summer luxury, - he has never done
Line 7: With his delights; for when tired out with fun
Line 8: He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.

Notice that the first 4 lines end on a semi-

colon. The grasshopper is introduced When he becomes tired, it is from
into the poem after his song has been singing/working - something that he finds
heard. The song comes first. enjoyable and fun-filled – he is never idle.
The personified grasshopper ‘takes the When he rests, he is at ‘ease’ in the shade of
lead’ and shows the rest of the world how a ‘pleasant weed’.
to find joy – he is a pleasure-loving Note that there is nothing negative in the
‘person’, he is relaxed (‘at ease’) and natural world.
finds ‘delight’ in everything he does. Oxymoron: The weed is described as
The grasshopper revels/takes delight in ‘pleasant’, it is as effective as any other leafy
the ‘luxury’ of summer, he does not plant to the grasshopper, it provides him with
complain about the heat, even when the needed shelter when he too needs to
every other creature is panting, sweating rest.
and hiding from the heat, he continues The poem reaches its turning point (volta) at
singing joyfully. the end of line 8 – there is a landscape
change.
SESTET: Line 9: The poetry of earth is ceasing never:

The sestet is set in winter.

The start of the sestet is a repeat of the
idea given in line 1.
Like line 1, line 9 also ends on a colon.
The rest of the sestet will tell the story of
the cricket (linked to the grasshopper).
In line 1 the ‘poetry of earth is never
dead’ and here in line 9 it ‘is ceasing
never’.
This line implies an even more vibrant
energy. Nature never stops (ceases), it
simply continues, it will never die.
The use of inversion (mainly for the sake
of rhyme) puts special emphasis on
‘never’ (placing it at the end of the line).
It furthermore serves as an effective
introduction to the change of scenery =
summer to winter.
 Line 10: On a lone winter evening, when the frost

Line 11: Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills
Line 12: The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever,
The winter scene portrayed here is as quiet as the
summer one described in the octave, where all the
birds have fallen silent because of the heat.
Here, the personified frost has, like an artisan,
crafted/shaped the world into a frozen silence/a
soundless statue.
The cricket takes the poem into winter – when the
other animals hide in their homes, the cricket’s
chirping continues.
Instead of growing quiet because of the cold, the
cricket finds a corner in a warm kitchen, near a
stove and continues singing louder and louder as he
finds more warmth.
Even though it is cold outside, the cricket is a
reminder of warmth and comfort as he sings next to
the warm stove – he spreads warmth. This picture
forms a contrast to the white, frosty world outside.
 Line 13: And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,
Line 14: The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.

Once again, like with the previous setting,

winter is not described in a grand elaborate
landscape, but in a cosy, domestic world.
The silence created by winter is broken by
the shrill, ever rising in volume, song of the
cricket.
The human listener, half lost in
drowsiness/half asleep, mixes up the song
of the grasshopper and the cricket.
Both the grasshopper and the cricket sing
the ‘poetry of earth’, their rhythmic songs
form an eternal song.
The songs seem to melt together,
reminding us of the unbroken thread of
nature.
Both songs (that of the cricket and the one
of the grasshopper) are parts of nature’s
persistent and loving force.
 Line 13: And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,
Line 14: The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.

The oppressive heat and silence of summer and the

frosty, cold silence of winter are equally brought to life.
The same constant chirping echoes through summer
and winter alike.
Despite being different, winter and summer are part of
the same thing.
The cricket’s song is linked to the grasshopper’s song,
as they are both part of nature’s persistent and loving
force.
No matter how harsh or bad things seem to be, there
is a beauty in the world that never dies. The ‘song of
the world’ will always be there.
The speaker praises nature and its capacity to bring
joy to people. We can find our own hope and comfort
in the deep, reverberating/echoing beauty of nature.
The ‘poetry of earth’ thus connects people to
something beautiful, constant and hopeful.