Explanation of the Poem: On the Grasshopper and Cricket | 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; Explanation In the very start of this poem, the poet affirms that the ‘music of earth’ is not dead, but it is always going because it is live. Even at the time when all the singing birds are extremely tired in the hot summer season and take shelter under the shady branches of trees, the nature’s song can still be heard. You will hear a voice running from hedge to hedge around the newly-cut grasslands is that of a Grasshopper. 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. Explanation In the previous stanza we learnt that a voice which runs from hedge to hedge around the newly cut grasslands is that of a Grasshopper. In this stanza, the poet tells us more about the grasshopper. He has the luxury of taking over the duty of everlasting song of earth in summer, as he is never filled with delights. The grasshopper is cheerful in summer season. He takes rest under the pleasant weeds only when he is ‘tired out with fun’. The poetry of earth is ceasing never: On a lone winter evening, when the frost Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills During the cold winter season, the birds are silent. There is complete silence on the frosty winter days. But the earth has its own way of expressing pleasure and joys. The song of a cricket can be heard which breaks this silence. So, the chilly atmosphere forces the cricket to seek warmth indoors but cannot stop his music. Rather, his music gets louder with time. The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever, And seems to one in drowsiness half lost, The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills. To a sleepy or drowsy man, the cricket’s song seems like the Grasshopper’s voice among some grassy hills. Here the poet means that people like to feel the warmth of summer even in bleak winter by mistaking the Cricket’s song for the Grasshopper’s.