"The Human Seasons" by John Keats

This sonnet is an attempt by Keats to link the natural life cycles of birth, life, death, and rebirth to the four seasons and from there to the nature of human existence. Taken literally, the poem is essentially a very eloquent description of the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, applied to the "mind of man" or the human demeanor. If interpreted in a more metaphorical sense, the poem takes on a distinctly different meaning. Keats opens the sonnet by establishing the fact that "There are four seasons in the mind of man". This could be taken to mean that this 'changing of seasons' affects only the abstractions of mind and spirit, and not the physical form of man. …