The Poetry of Earth [On the Grasshopper And Cricket] by John Keats: A Discussion

Hello Friends... 

Sure, we all are doing well... Be careful, we must stay fit and shouldn't fall ill and get our studies affected. We shall eat and drink healthy, exercise regularly, and won't avoid our domestic and social responsibilities. And whatever time we get for ourselves at the end of the day, we must study hard for most of the time, so that we learn to think... and learn. We simply cannot afford to stop thinking, for we are learners, and we are the chosen ones who got the scope to learn... 

Let's learn to think first... 

Who May Benefit from the Discussion

Though it is primarily meant for the students of Class XII, WBCHSE, any student, from any level, studying the poem independently may find the discussion helpful. Moreover, those who are poem-lovers, and read poems for the sake of the pleasure of reading poetry are likely to find on this platform a scope to get engaged in meaningful exchanges of ideas with others.

Your Previous Exposure to the English Romantic Poets

While being in class XI, you have studied a poem by William Wordsworth, and certainly have heard a few aspects that are typical to the Romantic poets. Even if this is your first exposure to the Romantic poets, you need not worry at all. I am hopeful that this discussion will make you interested enough to find some more works of the great masters of the Romantic period.

John Keats is one among the greatest English Romantic poets. He is particularly noted for his use of different physical senses and sensual perceptions in his poems. 

Listening to the Poem

Shall we find out which sensory organ[s] the poet is particularly deploying in this poem to build up his perception? Listen carefully to this excellent reading of the poem, it will help you to get the much more than just an ordinary reading on your own:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBaetiKhNSY

Have you got your answer? If not sure yet, listen again, and read the text simultaneously: 

The Poetry of Earth 

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 

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. 

The Sensory Perceptions

Auditory perceptions

Yes, now I am pretty sure that you have got the answer. The poem is quite rich in auditory sensations. 

Here we have 'a voice' that 'will run'. Please note that how skillfully, 'running', which is normally a visual perception, has been transformed to an auditory perception as we have 'a voice' here which 'will run'. Obviously, you can perceive 'a voice' only through your ears. 

And we have 'silence' as well, which is undoubtedly another auditory perception. Don't you think, 'absence' of anything is also as good a perception as the 'presence' of something? 

Do we have any other auditory perception to perceive in the poem?

Yes, certainly,- for we have the song of the cricket [an insect] to perceive as well...

Which among these you feel to be the most appealing/striking? For me, it is the 'Song' of the cricket, for it 'shrills', thus adding more details to my perception. Let me know about your opinions...

Visual Perceptions

Apart from the auditory perceptions built up in the poem, have you noted how the poet has also presented us a visual perception of a typical English countryside, both in a hot summer day and in a cold winter evening? 

It may help you in the examination if you make a list of the features that mark the summer day and the winter evening in a typical English countryside. 

This is how we look for the gratification of our sensory organs while reading Keats' poem. Did you find this method useful? 

The Presentation

What do you find striking you the most in the poem after that you have gone through it at least for twice? For me, it is the presentation of the thought in a neatly organised structure. 

Let me know, if you have differences in opinion. Till then, I will, in the mean time, try to explain why I find the presentation so important for this particular poem- 

The Theme

But you must agree, that in order to discuss the way of presentation, we must spent a few minutes on the thought itself which is being presented here. And I am quite sure here that we are not going to disagree that the thought, or the theme, or the main idea of the poem, is 'the poetry of earth'. 

The Title

Here, you [Students of WBCHSE] may also refer back to the title of the poem as you find it in your prescribed textbook: The Poetry of the Earth. However, it is noteworthy here that the poem was originally composed and was published under the title On the Grasshopper and Cricket. 

We will certainly talk about this change of title, but only after we discuss the poem under the title we have in our textbooks. Let me begin by asking the most predictable question on earth: What do we understand by 'the poetry of earth' as we study a poem about this? 

We all have, by this time, studied at least some poems in different languages, and think that we do have some bit of idea about 'poetry'. In fact, there are many among us who have even stepped a few steps ahead of the rest by becoming real-life poets, writing real poetry, for themselves, and their readers as well... 

Well... take your time. There is no hurry. The question might have been quite predictable, but never an easy one. You have to think deep, and study the text further to get your answer,- the key to your understanding of the poem. 

What Is Poetry?

What is it that rings in your mind as soon as you hear the word 'poetry'? What do you try to do when you try your hand at writing a poem yourself? Is it the diction, or the rhythm that defines poetry, or is it the subject matter? Or do you have a completely different answer popping up in your mind? 

There is no shame to admit that there is no simple answer to the question that looks apparently so simple. Can we, however, for the sake of this discussion, consider the rhythmical continuum of life on the planet itself as 'the poetry of earth'? 

If you agree, then we can look further into the poem. What is it that the poet is trying to convey in his poem? Why don't you go through the text once again to find the answer? What has he got to say about 'the poetry of earth'? 

The Permanency of the Poetry of Earth

I am pretty sure, brilliant as you all are, you have had no difficulty in spotting the answer right in the very first, and the ninth line of the poem. Well done, friends! 

But, haven't you got your next question to answer? Why do we have this repetition? Doesn't the ninth line mean the same as the first? 

The Emphasis

Obviously, both the lines mean the same. The repetition is for the sake of emphasis, because this is the notion that the poet is striving to drive into the readers' mind: the poetry of earth is never dead, the poetry of earth is never ceasing, rather it continues through all times of prosperity and adversity as well. 

What makes 'the poetry of earth' so powerful to defy whatever adversities it comes across? 

Is it 'life' itself, and our perception of 'life' that make 'the poetry of earth' so sustainable? 

How? Let us read the text once again, together: 

The First Stanza

The Birds Retiring from the Celebration of Life

Have you noted that in the first stanza, the poet is talking about the luxurious summer? Don't forget that the pleasant English summer is much different from the hot and mostly humid summer that we experience here in Bengal. Even then, sometimes, when the day turns too hot for the life outdoor [like the birds referred to in the poem] to continue their seasonal celebration, they hide into the cool of shelters. 

But does that put an end to the continuum of perceptible 'life' on earth? 

The Grasshopper Continues the Celebration

No, you still have the grasshopper taking the lead in celebrating 'life' in summer luxury when all the birds have retired. He knows his hideouts beneath the weeds to freshen him up again for his next run whenever he gets tired. So, his delightful celebrations never come to an end even in hard summer when the rest of the living world retires to shelter. 

The Second/Final Stanza

The Cricket Continues the Celebration

Even in harsh winter, [please do note that English winters are very cold than our tropical winters], when again outdoor life seems to have hidden into the warmth of shelter, the cricket's song from the fireside indoor seems to be very much like the grasshopper's voice from some meadows in summer, and manifests 'life' unto nature. And we find both life and time [seasons] continuing the race on earth following the natural course in spite of all oddities. 

The Poetry of Earth

Now, I do hope that you understand how 'the poetry of earth' actually refers to the continuum of life following its natural rhythm. It is obviously a very subjective reading, following the readers' perception of life and its manifestations. If one fails to perceive or imagine the cricket's song from near the stove in winter as the grasshopper's from the grassy meadows in summer, then [s]he won't be able to appreciate the poet's view. 

But don't you feel that perceiving such parallel associations are no poetic exceptions, but are quite common occurrences in our real lives? Don't you really feel that the poet has explored this very opportunity to assert his idea forward to us. 

The Structure

Have you noticed, how long we have been discussing this? Now just look at the volume of the poem itself: it's a mere fourteen lined poem.

Yes, it is a sonnet, Petrarchan in structure, divided into an octave [the eight-lined first stanza] and a sestet [the six-lined last stanza]. It is for this neat organisation of the poem why I have told you that the way the poet has presented his idea seems to me the most striking feature of the poem. 

The Argument

It is the typical argumentative structure of a Petrarchan sonnet that has made this possible. Poets still prefer to use this very structure in order to present a notion very neatly in a very brief manner which otherwise would have been much more long. 

The First Line: Beginning of the Octave

The very opening line of the octave announces the theme straight. And I am quite sure that you have not missed the ':' at the end of the line. 

The Elaboration

The colon indicates that the statement is going to get explained next. And so have we, the statement made in the first line of the poem explained in the rest part of the octave, -that the poetry of earth, manifested in the grasshopper's voice, that runs from hedge to hedge about the meadow even in so hot a time when all the birds exhausted due to the extreme heat have taken shelter in the cool shades of trees, never stops and continues its rhythm even in extreme hard time [summer]. 

The Ninth Line: Beginning of the Sestet

As usual, we expect a counter-argument in the sestet of a Petrarchan sonnet. Here too, we have a turn, but just in terms of time/season, only to affirm what has been proposed in the octave. 

The Repetition

This stanza also begins as the first, repeating the same statement [as made in the first line] in the ninth line again, and ending with a colon, indicating that an elaboration is following. 

The Elaboration

And we are pointed out the fact that the cricket's song from the warm corner of the fireplace indoor render life to the silent [apparently dead] nature in extreme winter, and may remind a sleepy person of the cricket's voice heard during the happier summer days. 

The Final Conclusion

So, actually both the stanzas of the poem cite instances from two opposite extremes [hot summer and cold winter] to favour of the same argument: whatever be the hardships, whatever be the adversities, life [represented by birds, grasshopper, the drowsy lone person, cricket etc.] will continue on earth in its own way, and hence, the poetry of earth, which is life itself, is never dead. 

Minor Structural Aspects Rendering Meaning

Punctuation

Presentation includes many more finer aspects that add to the broad structure of the argument. You have already noted how colons help us to locate the statements and their explanations. 

Will you now make it sure how the two dashes [do not count the hyphen in the compound 'new-mown'] function quite similarly and point out the additional bit of information about the preceding noun 'Grasshopper' in the poem? 

Why don't you also see for yourself how the other punctuation marks throughout the poem are helping you to get the meaning in the text? I would love to hear from you about this at the end of the discussion. 

Inversion of the Structure of Sentence

Have you noted how the elaborations in both the stanzas [the second line in the first stanza, and the tenth line in the second stanza] begin referring to time? This is a very conscious effort to foreground time, for both the difference of time/season [summer versus winter], and their likeness in terms of extremity are important for the sake of the whole argument presented in the poem. Otherwise, won't you agree that normally, we begin a sentence in English with the Subject followed by the verb, and refer to time at the end part of the sentence as an adverbial? In that case, the expression contained in the second, third and fourth lines in the first stanza would have been: 

'A voice will run from hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead when all the birds are faint with the hot sun, and hide in cooling trees'. 

It is actually for both the sake of meaning and rhythm, the poet has chosen to express in this fashion. 

Now it's your turn to find out how the message contained in the second, third and fourth lines in the second stanza would have been expressed under normal circumstances. Let me know if you face any problem.

The Use of Adjectives

If you want to study the use of adjectives preceding the noun they qualify, this poem is a very helpful poem: 'hot sun', 'cooling trees', 'new-mown mead' [the nouns are underlined], and there are many more for you to find out. Particularly, I will be waiting for you to find out a particular expression where you may get confused whether the adjective is actually qualifying the noun it is preceding. 

Back to the Title

Now, before we conclude, we must get back to the title of the poem once again. You now already know the original title of the poem. You also know that it is a popular convention to refer to a sonnet by its first line. So, you may refer to the same poem by its first line as well. And for you, the students of WBCHSE, perhaps the editors of your textbook have wisely chosen the most important phrase from the very first line to give you a clue into the meaning of the poem. 

Those Meaningful Fifteen Minutes

Did you enjoy the poem? Did you find it quite difficult? Or, did you enjoy the challenges in tackling the hurdles to get the meaning? How long did you take to study the poem? Now it's time for me to inform you that the poet took just fifteen minutes, yes, only fifteen minutes, to compose the poem. Interested to know the whole story? Hit the link below to get the story, and you'll be rewarded. Find out for yourself, what's the reward: 

https://journalpulp.com/2014/09/17/grasshopper-cricket/

Please feel free to write to me in case you have any trouble in understanding the discussion, or if you have any further query... 

Post-reading Activities:

1. Complete each of the following sentences, choosing the correct option from the alternatives provided. [Each question carries 1 mark]

i. Being tired the grasshopper rests beneath

a. a tree

b. a bush

c. some pleasant weed

d. grassy hill

[H.S. 2020] 

Answer Key:

i. c

2. Answer the following questions, each in a complete sentence. [Each question carries 1 mark]

i. Whose voice shall run from hedge to hedge? [H.S. 2020]

ii. What does Keats celebrate in the poem 'The Poetry of Earth'? [H.S. 2020] 

Model Answers:

i. The grasshopper's voice shall run from hedge to hedge.

ii. Keats celebrates the continuum of life in the poem 'The Poetry of Earth'.

3. Answer the following questions, each in about 100 words. [Each question carry a total of six marks]

i. Identify the voices of  the 'Poetry of Earth'. How does Keats establish its continuity through these voices? [2+4] [H.S. 2020]

Model Answers:

i. In the poem, we have the birds, the grasshopper, and the cricket as the voices of the 'poetry of earth'.

Birds are the common voice of the 'poetry of earth' in summer. But, when it turns too hot, they hide away. But we still have the grasshopper taking the lead in voicing the 'poetry of earth' as he knows his hideouts beneath the weeds to freshen him up again for his next run whenever he gets tired. Even in harsh winter, when again outdoor life seems to have ceased, the cricket's song from the fireside indoor seems to be very much like the grasshopper's voice from some meadows in summer, and the 'poetry of earth' continues round the year through these voices.  [Word count: 122]