Undoubtedly one of the best-known first lines in English poetry, “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” was written by John Keats on this day nearly 200 years ago in his ode To Autumn.
The poem was said by him to be inspired by a walk in the water meadows behind Winchester College near his home. The legend is he only went on the walk to escape from the sound of his landlady’s daughter practising the violin. Fortunately when he returned she had finished playing and he jotted down the 33 lines of what is considered one of the finest poems in the English language.
Although only 24 years old Keats knew he had tuberculosis. His mother and brother had already died of this disease so he must have known his days were short. Literature buffs say this is what gives the poem its special sense of mortality and melancholy as well as beauty. Keats later moved to Rome hoping the dry climate would save him, but died 18 months later.
Climate change has made September into more of a summer month than in Keats’s day, with frosts now a rarity in the south, and most of the leaves still firmly on the trees.
However, it is still the start of the conker season, one of the most aggressive and painful games children can play without censure, entailing swinging very hard objects on the end of a piece of string. It is also special because it a sport that is entirely seasonal, dependent on fruit falling from horse chestnuts. The rules require that only freshly gathered conkers will be used.
