Winter
When winter comes along the river lineAnd Earth has put away her green attire,With all the pomp of her autumnal pride,The world is made a sanctuary old,Where Gothic trees uphold the arch of gray,And gaunt stone fences on the ridge's crestStand like carved screens before a crimson shrine,Showing the sunset glory through the chinks.There, like a nun with frosty breath, the soul,Uplift in adoration, sees the worldTransfigured to a temple of her Lord;While down the soft blue-shadowed aisles of snowNight, like a sacristan with silent step,Passes to light the tapers of the stars.
Words in this poem
- gaunt a.
- Attenuated, as with fasting or suffering; lean; meager; pinched and grim. [Cf. Norw. gand a thin pointed stick, a tall and thin man, and W. gwan weak.]
- uplift v. t.
- To lift or raise aloft; to raise; to elevate; as, to uplift the arm; to uplift a rock.
- sacristan n.
- An officer of the church who has the care of the utensils or movables, and of the church in general; a sexton. [F. sacristian, LL. sacrista, fr. L. sacer. See Sacred, and cf. Sexton.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Winter is in the public domain. This text is taken from Later Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #33417; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Bliss Carman, Winter, in Later Poems (1921), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #33417, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carman-later-poems/winter.html, id L11068.
Form and metre
Winter is 14 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter, other poems in blank verse.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 A-----A------- lineA · attire · pride · old · gray · crest · shrineA · chinks · soul · world · lord · snow · step · stars
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When winter comes along the river line | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| And Earth has put away her green attire, | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| With all the pomp of her autumnal pride, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| The world is made a sanctuary old, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘· |
| Where Gothic trees uphold the arch of gray, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| And gaunt stone fences on the ridge's crest | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Stand like carved screens before a crimson shrine, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Showing the sunset glory through the chinks. | 10 | /˘·/·/˘··· |
| There, like a nun with frosty breath, the soul, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Uplift in adoration, sees the world | 10 | /˘··˘/˘··· |
| Transfigured to a temple of her Lord; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| While down the soft blue-shadowed aisles of snow | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Night, like a sacristan with silent step, | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| Passes to light the tapers of the stars. | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.