Analysis of Flowers in Winter
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
How strange to greet, this frosty morn,
In graceful counterfeit of flower,
These children of the meadows, born
Of sunshine and of showers!
How well the conscious wood retains
The pictures of its flower-sown home,
The lights and shades, the purple stains,
And golden hues of bloom!
It was a happy thought to bring
To the dark season's frost and rime
This painted memory of spring,
This dream of summertime.
Our hearts are lighter for its sake,
Our fancy's age renews its youth,
And dim-remembered fictions take
The guise of present truth.
A wizard of the Merrimac, -
So old ancestral legends say, -
Could call green leaf and blossom back
To frosted stem and spray.
The dry logs of the cottage wall,
Beneath his touch, put out their leaves;
The clay-bound swallow, at his call,
Played round the icy eaves.
The settler saw his oaken flail
Take bud, and bloom before his eyes;
From frozen pools he saw the pale
Sweet summer lilies rise.
To their old homes, by man profaned
Came the sad dryads, exiled long,
And through their leafy tongues complained
Of household use and wrong.
The beechen platter sprouted wild,
The pipkin wore its old-time green,
The cradle o'er the sleeping child
Became a leafy screen.
Haply our gentle friend hath met,
While wandering in her sylvan quest,
Haunting his native woodlands yet,
That Druid of the West;
And while the dew on leaf and flower
Glistened in the moonlight clear and still,
Learned the dusk wizard's spell of power,
And caught his trick of skill.
But welcome, be it new or old,
The gift which makes the day more bright,
And paints, upon the ground of cold
And darkness, warmth and light!
Without is neither gold nor green;
Within, for birds, the birch-logs sing;
Yet, summer-like, we sit between
The autumn and the spring.
The one, with bridal blush of rose,
And sweetest breath of woodland balm,
And one whose matron lips unclose
In smiles of saintly calm.
Fill soft and deep, O winter snow!
The sweet azalea's oaken dells,
And hide the banks where roses blow
And swing the azure bells!
O'erlay the amber violet's leaves,
The purple aster's brookside home,
Guard all the flowers her pencil gives
A live beyond their bloom.
And she, when spring comes round again,
By greening slope and singing flood
Shall wander, seeking, not in vain
Her darlings of the wood.
Scheme | ABAC DEDF GEGX HIHI JKJK LMLM NONO PQPQ PRPR PPPP BSBS PPPP RGRG XTCT UCUX MEXF XPXP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (76%) |
Metre | 11111101 01010110 1101011 110110 11010101 010111011 01010101 010111 11010111 10110101 11010011 11110 101110111 10110111 01010101 011101 01010100 11010101 11110101 110101 01110101 01111111 01110111 110101 01001111 11010111 11011101 110101 1111111 101111 01110101 11101 0110101 01011111 010100101 010101 11010111 110000101 1011011 110101 010111010 10001101 10111110 011111 11011111 01110111 01010111 010101 01110111 01110111 11011101 010001 01110111 0101111 0111011 011101 11011101 01111 01011101 010101 101011 010111 110100101 010111 01111101 11010101 11010101 010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,308 |
Words | 405 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 17 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 68 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 107 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 27, 2023
- 2:04 min read
- 262 Views
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"Flowers in Winter" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22895/flowers-in-winter>.
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