The first stanza is wrought with pleasant images and "mellow fruitfulness" (1). Here autumn is introduced as pleasant late summer laziness with no other duty than to produce a bountiful harvest. However, the truthfulness of this image is called into question at the end of the stanza. The bees have all that they can use, and are enjoying the easy life "until they think warm days will never cease" (10). This immediately places this stanza that at first seems to be a Watteau painting in a sinister light; it is a lie that is concealing something monstrous. Basically, the bee's honeycomb (cells) is plentiful like the world (our cell").

The second stanza is harder to understand. Here the focus shifts from the pleasant works of early autumn to a physical presence in the world. Yet, it is an apathetic personage. One may "seek abroad" (13) the hand that so bountifully gave...