Analysis of My Winter Rose
Alfred Austin 1835 (Leeds) – 1913 (Ashford)
Why did you come when the trees were bare?
Why did you come with the wintry air?
When the faint note dies in the robin's throat,
And the gables drip and the white flakes float?
What a strange, strange season to choose to come,
When the heavens are blind and the earth is dumb:
When nought is left living to dirge the dead,
And even the snowdrop keeps its bed!
Could you not come when woods are green?
Could you not come when lambs are seen?
When the primrose laughs from its childlike sleep,
And the violets hide and the bluebells peep?
When the air as your breath is sweet, and skies
Have all but the soul of your limpid eyes,
And the year, growing confident day by day,
Weans lusty June from the breast of May?
Yet had you come then, the lark had lent
In vain his music, the thorn its scent,
In vain the woodbine budded, in vain
The rippling smile of the April rain.
Your voice would have silenced merle and thrush,
And the rose outbloomed would have blushed to blush,
And Summer, seeing you, paused, and known
That the glow of your beauty outshone its own.
So, timely you came, and well you chose,
You came when most needed, my winter rose.
From the snow I pluck you, and fondly press
Your leaves 'twixt the leaves of my leaflessness.
Scheme | AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH IIJJ KKLL MMXG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (86%) |
Metre | 111110101 111110101 1011100101 0010100111 1011101111 10101100111 1111101101 01001111 11111111 11111111 10111111 0010010011 1011111101 111011111 00110100111 110110111 111110111 011100111 0101101 0100110101 111110101 001111111 010101101 10111100111 110110111 1111101101 1011110101 11101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,218 |
Words | 236 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 138 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 33 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:11 min read
- 67 Views
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"My Winter Rose" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/772/my-winter-rose>.
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