FOREGROUNDING ROMANTICISM IN KEATS'S "ODE TO AUTUMN": A STYLISTIC ANALYSIS

Abstract

   The present research project provides a stylistic description of the celebrated John Keats's ode "To Autumn" (1819) with special emphasis on the foregrounding of Romantic literary qualities by using linguistic and stylistic means. Using the Leech and Short (2007) framework of stylistic analysis, the study investigates the poem in four broad areas: Lexical choices, Grammatical structures, Figures of speech and Cohesion and context. The research is designed to show in which ways Keats uses sensory imagery, personification, extended metaphor, and the strategic use of lexical items to communicate the primary Romantic ideas of the beauty of nature, the passing of time, mortality, and the sadness of transience. The main source of data for this study is the text of the ode. The method applied in this study is qualitative research which is dealing with analysis of this ode at four levels of language. The results show that Keats's stylistic decisions are not just external ornamentations but are internal and ideological, and serve as vehicles by which Romantic philosophy can be conveyed. This study will be of interest to the growing body of stylistic research into Romantic poetry and will make a contribution to the research gap by systematically analyzing the mechanisms foregrounded by the poem, following a framework.