Art and English engaged in cross-curricular collaboration at The Webber Independent School, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the poem often regarded as the most perfect in the English language. John Keats wrote his ode To Autumn after a countryside walk on 19th September 1819.
Year 9 and 10 students designed individual images in Art, to represent the poem. The winning entries were by Elisabetta A (Year 9) whose picture showed Keats' personified figure of Autumn hailing the season, and Elliot B-L (Year 10) with an autumnal backdrop.
Students were presented with laminated copies of the poems with the winning designs in an assembly to mark the day, with one class devoting their English lesson to recreating Keats` walk around the school grounds, after which Andi W, Year 10, wrote the following:
"At first glance, To Autumn appears to be about arguably the most aesthetically pleasing of the four seasons. Upon closer investigation, the realisation that John Keats knew that he was already mortally ill with incipient tuberculosis gives insight into his reflections upon life being lived to the full through a deep appreciation and communion with nature, in a way that we should otherwise miss altogether."