My Season Inspired Sonnet; Summer's End

I'd already started writing a poem before I read John Keats, To Autumn, a poem that paints a majestic picture of a season, and used a similar personification of nature to write my finished piece.

I started out with the last two lines, which I thought made a profound statement that could be used as the final couplet in a sonnet, which ends like a good story with a clear expression of theme. The rest came from lots of scribbles in my A4 notebook, a good size for writing poetry as it gives you lots of space to play around with different rhymes alongside the poem and cross-out and start over several times.

Below, I've linked to Keats' poem and a walk in Winchester which supposedly gave him inspiration; I'll be taking that walk later this week as part of my travel and hiking blog. For now, if you can spare a few minutes, let me know what you think of my poem in the comments section below.
 

Summer's End

I know, with misty breath and empty sky,
That creatures will have flocked or taken sleep,
And from my frosted window, wonder why
Our summer fun must fade and turn life bleak.
Creeping its glimmering decay, a snail
Like frost eats autumn’s crunch, replacing lake
Side laughter with a howling empty gale
That strips the trees till neither ash nor oak.
Then, the first flake weaves onto skin like silk,
And stepping-stones of crystal spread the pond,
And townsfolk, snowball playing, skate the milk
With knowing hope, a dance till winter’s end,
For trees that lose their colour
Return full bloom in summer.


Click here for a link to Keats' poem, and here for a guide to Keats' walk in Winchester.