Question

why the chapter's name is cricket in the road instead of cricket on the road?(class 8th English)

Answer 1

Quick Answer

Keats's poem "The Grasshopper and the Cricket" explores how the beauty of nature persists and never relinquishes. The speaker examines the progression of time through natural indicators, particularly the grasshopper frolicking in summer and the cricket chirping near the stove in winter. Even when it seems nature is resting, its "poetry" is never finished.

Expert Answers

D. REYNOLDS | CERTIFIED EDUCATOR

Keats's sonnet is a nature poem: it celebrates the ceaseless beauty of nature, in this case in terms of the song of two insects. Like most Romantic poets, Keats focused on the beauty of nature and its capacity to give joy.

The first eight lines of the poem are set in summer. In this part of the poem it is hot and even the songbirds are quiet. However, Keats focuses on the grasshopper. Even when it is very hot, the grasshopper is always singing: this is what Keats means when he writes that the grasshopper's "voice will run." The grasshopper enjoys life. He is always at ease and always having fun, "never done / With his delights."

The second part of the poem (the last six lines) moves to winter. Here the "poetry of earth" continues. The frost and cold might make it silent outside, but warmed by the stove, the cricket sings. This what Keats means when he writes that near the stove, "shrills / The Cricket's song."

Finally, in the last two lines or final couplet, the poet muses that the song of the cricket reminds him of the song of the grasshopper. Because of the cricket, the poet remembers summer and imagines the grasshopper "among some grassy hills."