_On the Grasshopper and Cricket._

Quiz: On the Grasshopper and Cricket — John Keats

1. Recall – Form: What is the formal structure of On the Grasshopper and Cricket, and which tradition does it belong to?

1. Recall – Context: Under what unusual circumstances did Keats compose this poem, and how old was he at the time?

1. Recall – Speaker & Tone: How would you describe the overall tone of the poem? Use at least two adjectives drawn from the analysis.

1. Recall – Key Image: What insect represents summer in the poem, and what does it symbolize according to the analysis?

1. Comprehension – Structure: How does the poem's two-part structure map onto the two seasons it explores? Which section covers which season?

1. Comprehension – Symbols: What role does silence play in the poem? How does Keats treat it in both the octave and the sestet?

1. Comprehension – Imagery: What is the significance of the stove/fire as a symbol in the poem's sestet?

1. Analysis – Theme: How does the poem develop the idea that nature is constantly filled with sound? What is the relationship between the grasshopper and the cricket in supporting this theme?

1. Analysis – Craft: The analysis notes that frost is described as working "like a craftsman." What effect does this figurative treatment of frost create, and how does the cricket's song contrast with it?

1. Analysis – Biographical/Historical: The analysis describes this poem as coming from a period when Keats was "still discovering his unique voice." What evidence within the poem — in terms of form, theme, or influence — supports this description?

Answer Key

1. It is a Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet, divided into an octave and a sestet.

1. Keats wrote it on December 30, 1816, during a timed competition with the poet Leigh Hunt to compose a sonnet on the same theme. He was 21 years old.

1. The tone is warm, relaxed, and subtly celebratory — with a sleepy, satisfied quality, especially in the sestet.

1. The grasshopper represents summer. It symbolizes the lively, carefree essence of nature and the idea that nature speaks even in seemingly quiet moments.

1. The octave explores summer (the grasshopper in the meadow), while the sestet shifts to winter (the cricket by the stove/fire indoors).

1. Silence appears twice — first when the summer heat drives birds to shelter, and again when winter frost settles over the landscape. In both cases, silence is immediately broken by an insect's song, suggesting that silence in nature is never truly complete or lasting.

1. The stove/fire creates a pocket of summer warmth within the cold winter setting. Its heat induces drowsiness and comfort, allowing the half-dreaming listener's mind to drift back to the grasshopper's summer fields, linking the two seasons imaginatively.

1. The poem argues that nature's "poetry" or music is unceasing across all seasons. The grasshopper and cricket act as counterparts — one carrying nature's song through summer, the other through winter — ensuring there is no gap in the natural world's voice.

1. Portraying frost as a deliberate, skilled craftsman emphasizes how thoroughly and intentionally it silences the world. The cricket's sharp, piercing song then serves as a vivid contrast — a burst of life cutting through that carefully wrought stillness, mirroring the summer warmth of the fire itself.

1. The poem displays Keats's debt to the Romantic circle around Leigh Hunt (shown by the contest itself and the Romantic belief in nature as a communicative force) and uses a formally tidy Petrarchan sonnet structure — notably controlled compared to the boundary-pushing work of his later odes — suggesting a poet still working within inherited models before developing his distinctive style.