In the first stanza the speaker of the poem addresses the grasshopper. The actual word grasshopper is never used throughout the poem, only the surroundings and habits of it. We have the first metaphor in the poem: "the waving hair Of some well-fillèd oaten beard". It is a metaphor for grass which is the usual habitat of the grasshopper. The second metaphor "delicious tear" dropped from heaven, refers to the summer rain. The speaker ends the first stanza already revealing the fate of the grasshopper: he is "reared" in heaven.
The second stanza is similar to the first one in the sense that it describes the habits of the grasshopper. Joys of earth and air are his, he hops, and he flies. The grasshopper is having a good time, while he rests in his acorn-bed, his poppy works. The flower poppy closes at the dawn and grasshoppers are creatures of the day, meaning they rest during the night. Therefore, when poppy is working on closing itself, the grasshopper hides and sleeps.
In the third stanza, the grasshopper is still having a good time, he welcomes the day and the warm sun, he makes merry himself, the men and the melancholy streams. Streams are melancholy because it is the summer, they small and with a slow flow.
The fourth stanza, the good time is at an end: the golden ears are cropped-grass takes on a golden color at the arrival of autumn. Ceres is the goddess of crops and agriculture from Roman mythology, Bacchus is a Greek god of wine. "Ceres and Bacchus bid good night"-they are out of there, leaving; and with them the food and wine are gone as well. Frost, cold is entering the scene and destroying everything on its way.
After admiring the grasshopper for the joys he had at his disposal the speaker of the poem suddenly turns to criticizing his foolishness: "Poor verdant fool, and now green ice". His joys were as large and as long-lasting as his perch of grass. And now they provide lay in against winter rain and "poise Their floods with an o’erflowing glass"-this could mean that the grasshopper's joys are now only an inspiration to the poets.
In the sixth stanza the speaker of the poem turns his direction elsewhere. He begins to address the person he dedicated the poem to. He starts to talk about kinship with his poet friend. Now it can be deemed safe to assume that the speaker of the poem is the poet himself. He says that they will "create genuine summer in each other's breast" despite the frozen fate-death.
In the next stanza the poet talks about the immortality of their accomplishments: their "sacred hearths shall burn eternally". He makes allusion to the eternal vestal flame from Ancient Rome. Another allusion to a different Aesop fable about the North Wind.
In the next two stanzas the poet continues to talk about their poetic immortality and ends the poem with comparing them to "untempted kings" who asking nothing need nothing; the entire world is theirs, but they are poor in the sense of wanting themselves.
