The Calendar of Nature

The Calendar of Nature is a series of articles by Leigh Hunt about aspects of various months and seasons published throughout 1819 in the Examiner. It is also included in his Literary Pocket-Book and published on its own as The Months. The work places emphasis on the season of autumn as a time for justice and prosperity, and influenced John Keats's poem "To Autumn". The emphasis on both works is on a temperate landscape and the positive political aspects of living in such a place. The work also stresses the sickness that is connected to a temperate landscape, which is related to the physical problems that Keats was suffering from at the time. Background In 1819, Hunt's The Calendar of Nature was printed in his periodical the Examiner. The poem describes the artistic connections to each of the months, descriptions of festivals, and a discussion about nature. Hunt also included the calendar in his collection the Literary Pocket-Book, a combination of poems and other material by Hunt and others. The work was first printed in January 1819, and, by 1823, there were five collections under the title. The work was later published in 1821 under the title The Months. The 1821 edition contained a preface which declared, "The good-nature with which this Calendar was received on its appearance in 1819 ... has induced its republication in a separate form, with considerable additions". The 1821 edition also included the final two stanzas of John Keats's poem "To Autumn" with the claim that "A living poet has happily personified autumn in some of the pleasantest shapes under which her servants appear". Months The work quotes Percy Bysshe Shelley and discusses the works of Edmund Spenser. The calendar also refers to Shelley regarding autumn when it states: "The poet still takes advantage of the exuberance of harvest and the sign of the Zodiac in this month, to read us a lesson on justice". For September and autumn, Hunt connected the harvest and the month's zodiac symbol, Libra, in order to discuss justice. In particular, he said that autumn had "a certain festive abundance for the supply of all creation". Additionally, Hunt brings up Shelley's poems Convito and The Revolt of Islam in order to discuss autumn, abundance of crops, and revolution.