On the Grasshopper and Cricket

Keats


About Keats

John Keats (1795-1821), is considered one of the greatest at English poets. The son of a livery stable keeper, Keats attended school at Enfield. England. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to a surgeon, Keats gave up surgery to write poetry. His first volume of poems appeared in 1817. It included 'I Stood Tip toe Upon a little Hill'. 'Sleep and Poetry' and the famous sonnet 'On First Looking into Chapman‘s Homer'. In the selected poem we get a good idea of Keats' love for nature, and his knowledge at it at first hand.

The poetry of earth It 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
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
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.

Available Answers

  1. 1.

    Which line in the poem is similar to the first, and expresses the same idea?

  2. 2.

    Whose voice will run from hedge to hedge? Why do you think the voice sounds in the hedges?

  3. 3.

    Where do the birds hide and why?

  4. 4.

    What does the poet mean by 'take the lead in summer luxury'?

  5. 5.

    Does the Grasshopper tire, and does he then behave like the birds?

  6. 6.

    What time of day is described in the second part of the poem?

10 more answer(s) available.

Comments
No1 question answer
02 May 2023Sailen D.
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