On the Grasshopper and the Cricket

In Keats poem, the text is divided into two parts, the first one, full of life and joy, and the second one, full of sadness and freezing cold.

The grasshopper is associated with the jolly and hot summer, while the cricket is related to the winter and the cold.

Both parts of the poem are divided by the 9^th line: “The poetry of earth is ceasing never”, where the first part presents the summer, where life returns and everything is happy and wonderful. To enjoy the season, however you have to endure the pain of the harsh second part of the poem that is the winter, where life nearly ends, and the happiness fades away to be covered by a snowy cover of sadness.

The poem also presents two different ways of seeing life, the first one is the optimist, without taking in account the worries, compared with the summer, and this presents people who don’t take life too seriously, so they can live better, without stress. On the other hand, the second one presents the cricket’s point of view that is very worried for his life and takes everything too seriously.

But at the end of the poem, the grasshopper is confused with the crickets, which shows that in moments of drowsiness, roles can be swapped and the characters can be different depending on the situations they are found in.

Also, the poem is an intertext of the known fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper:

Once there lived an ant and a grasshopper in a grassy meadow.

 All day long the ant would work hard, collecting grains of wheat from the farmer's field far away. She would hurry to the field every morning, as soon as it was light enough to see by, and toil back with a heavy grain of wheat balanced on her head. She would put the grain of wheat carefully away in her larder, and then hurry back to the field for another one. All day long she would work, without stop or rest, scurrying back and forth from the field, collecting the grains of wheat and storing them carefully in her larder.

The grasshopper would look at her and laugh. 'Why do you work so hard, dear ant?' he would say. 'Come, rest awhile, and listen to my song. Summer is here, the days are long and bright. Why waste the sunshine in labour and toil?'

 The ant would ignore him, and head bent, would just hurry to the field a little faster. This would make the grasshopper laugh even louder. 'What a silly little ant you are!' he would call after her. 'Come, come and dance with me! Forget about work! Enjoy the summer! Live a little!' And the grasshopper would hop away across the meadow, singing and dancing merrily.

Summer faded into autumn, and autumn turned into winter. The sun was hardly seen, and the days were short and grey, the nights long and dark. It became freezing cold, and snow began to fall.

The grasshopper didn't feel like singing any more. He was cold and hungry. He had nowhere to shelter from the snow, and nothing to eat. The meadow and the farmer's field were covered in snow, and there was no food to be had. 'Oh what shall I do? Where shall I go?' wailed the grasshopper. Suddenly he remembered the ant. 'Ah - I shall go to the ant and ask her for food and shelter!' declared the grasshopper, perking up. So off he went to the ant's house and knocked at her door. 'Hello ant!' he cried cheerfully. 'Here I am, to sing for you, as I warm myself by your fire, while you get me some food from that larder of yours!'

The ant looked at the grasshopper and said, 'All summer long I worked hard while you made fun of me, and sang and danced. You should have thought of winter then! Find somewhere else to sing, grasshopper! There is no warmth or food for you here!' And the ant shut the door in the grasshopper's face.

It is wise to worry about tomorrow today.

And there we can clearly see the meaning of the fable, and in a way that of the poem too.

The words in the poem that portray the pleasures of nature are mainly the ones in the first eight lines, in the optimistic part of the poem. These words are mainly adjectives and nouns, and in a lower proportion, verbs, e.g.: birds, hot, new-moon, lead, summer luxury, delights, fun and pleasant.

The rhyme of the poem is steadier in the first part of the poem, while in the second part the rhyme changes, showing a difference of scene.

Finally, in the poem, it is shown how although you can think that sadness will last forever, there is always  an end to it, and happiness will flourish again, renewing the cycle that is portrayed in the whole poem

Keats vividly portrays the never-ending pleasures of nature, because it offers us a circle between the seasons that never stop, like life. That’s why you have to appreciate everything you have and work to have a better future, because although there will always be an opportunity to succeed, we never know what will happen to us in the future.