1819年9月19日，濟慈在溫徹斯特附近沿著伊欽河（英语：River Itchen, Hampshire）散步。濟慈於9月21日給朋友約翰·漢密爾頓·雷諾茲（John Hamilton Reynolds）的信中，描述了這一景像給他的印象以及它對《秋頌》結構的影響[2]：「這季節太美了——空气多好。关于它溫和的溫度（……）我從未像現在這樣喜歡殘梗散碎的田野（……）不知怎的，殘梗的平原給人以溫暖感，就像有些繪畫給人以溫暖感一樣。這一點在星期天我散步時給了我強烈印象，於是我寫了一首詩[6]。」濟慈腦中並不是任何事情都是樂觀的，詩人於9月知道他將不得不最後放棄《海伯利安》。因此，他寫給雷諾茲的信中還留下一張便條說他放棄了他的長篇詩[7]。濟慈並沒有發送《秋頌》給雷諾茲，但是將詩放進他給出版人和朋友理查德·伍德豪斯（Richard Woodhouse）的信中，並於同一天在它身上標明日期[8]。
這首詩經過了修改，並包含在濟慈1820年的詩集《女妖、伊莎貝拉、聖艾妮絲節前夕及其他詩歌》（Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems）。雖然出版人泰勒和赫塞（Taylor and Hessey）害怕像濟慈《恩底彌翁（英语：Endymion (poem)）》的1818年版一樣受到差評困擾，他們寧願刪去任何有可能引起爭議的詩後出版精選集，來確保不會有出於政治動機的評論會給詩集帶來不良聲譽[9]。
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.[10]
Corrigan, Timothy. Christensen, Allan; Jones, Lilla; Galigani, Giuseppe; Johnson, Anthony , 编. Keats, Hazlitt and Public Character. Challenge of Keats (Atlanta: Rodopi). 2000. ISBN 90-420-0509-2.
