Analysis of Winter

John Le Gay Brereton 1871 (Sydney) – 1933



When winter chills your aged bones
As by the fire you sit and nod,
You'll hear a passing wind that moans,
And think of one beneath the sod.

You'll feebly sleek your hair of grey,
And mutter words that none may know,
And dream you touch the sodden clay
That laps the dream of long ago.

The shrinking ash may fall apart
And show a gleam that lingers yet.
A moment in your cooling heart
May shine a sparkle of regret.

And where the pit is chill and deep,
And bones are mouldering in the clay,
A thrill of buried love will creep
And shudder aimlessly away.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GCGC
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 1101111 110101101 11010111 01110101 11011111 01011111 01110101 11011101 01011101 01011101 01001101 11010101 01011101 0111001 01110111 01010001
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 545
Words 109
Sentences 6
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 108
Words per stanza (avg) 27
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
75

John Le Gay Brereton

John Le Gay Brereton was an Australian poet, critic and professor of English at the University of Sydney. He was the first president of the Fellowship of Australian Writers when it was formed in Sydney in 1928. more…

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