On the Grasshopper and the
Cricket
John Keats
Presentation by:
•Emad Masroor
•Hashir Shahid
•Faaris Khan
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
Structure

The poem is structurally similar to a sonnet
because:
◦ It has 14 lines
◦ It can be divided into an octet and a sestet
◦ It is written in iambic pentameter

The poem has a definite rhyme scheme
◦ {abbaabba cdecde}
The first half of the octet deals with summer
imagery, while the second half deals with the
grasshopper
 Similarly, the first half of the sestet deals with
winter imagery, while the second half deals with
the cricket.

Imagery

The Octet:
◦ Summer (afternoon) imagery:





Hot sun
Cooling trees
Hedge
New-mown mead (meadow)
The Sestet:
◦ Winter (evening) imagery:




Lone winter evening
Frost
Stove
Silence
Octet: Grasshopper
Active in the summer
 Active in the day time
______________________
___
 Pleasant and active mood
 Lively environment created
by the words ‘delights’ and
‘fun’

Sestet: Cricket
Active in the winter
 Active in the evening
______________________
___
 Dismal and melancholy
mood
 Slow and peaceful
environment created by
‘silence’ and ‘drowsiness’

Holistic Interpretation
The poem begins in a lively mood with images
mostly relating to the typical ideal of a summer
afternoon. Amidst this environment, the poet
introduces the grasshopper, who ‘takes the lead’
among other creatures, as if proclaiming the
bounties of summer
 In the sestet, the mood of the poem changes, with
the images now dealing mostly with the winter
evening and its related silence. Amidst this silence,
the cricket’s song is introduced, which brings
‘warmth’ in the cold atmosphere

The song of the cricket amidst the silence
wrought by the frost reminds the poet of
the grasshopper’s song in the summer.
 The two are only different in outward
nature, but if one listens ‘in drowsiness
half lost’, both represent the ‘poetry of
earth’

Thematic Analysis
“The poetry of earth is never dead”
This is the opening line of the poem and
suggests a veneration of nature, as the poet
perceives the beauty of nature to be eternal
and everlasting
 The beauty of nature is not constrained by
time
Nature’s poetry is as resonant in the winter as it
is in the summer. It’s more obvious in summer,
because of the myriad sounds to be heard, but
for the attentive ear, winter holds the same
charm.

JazakAllah
THANK YOU