The Wind of Winter

Madison Julius Cawein (1865–1914) · 1911

iambic tetrameter · ABABAB · 42 lines · from Poems

The Winter Wind, the wind of death,Who knocked upon my door,Now through the keyhole entereth,Invisible and hoar:He breathes around his icy breathAnd treads the flickering floor.

I heard him, wandering in the night,Tap at my windowpane;With ghostly fingers, snowy white,I heard him tug in vain,Until the shuddering candlelightDid cringe with fear and strain.

The fire, awakened by his voice,Leapt up with frantic arms,Like some wild babe that greets with noiseIts father home who storms,With rosy gestures that rejoice,And crimson kiss that warms.

Now in the hearth he sits and, drownedAmong the ashes, blows;Or through the room goes stealing roundOn cautious-creeping toes,Deep-mantled in the drowsy soundOf night that sleets and snows.

And oft, like some thin faery-thing,The stormy hush amid,I hear his captive trebles singBeneath the kettle's lid;Or now a harp of elfland stringIn some dark cranny hid.

Again I hear him, implike, whine,Cramped in the gusty flue;Or knotted in the resinous pineRaise goblin cry and hue,While through the smoke his eyeballs shine,A sooty red and blue.

At last I hear him, nearing dawn,Take up his roaring broom,And sweep wild leaves from wood and lawn,And from the heavens the gloom,To show the gaunt world lying wan,And morn's cold rose a-bloom.

Words in this poem

keyhole n.: A hole or apertupe in a door or lock, for receiving a key.
hoar v. t.: To become moldy or musty. [AS. harian to grow gray.]
ghostly a.: Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual; as, a ghostly confessor. [OE. gastlich, gostlich, AS. gastlic. See Ghost.]
snowy a.: White like snow.
candlelight n.: The light of a candle.
babe n.: An infant; a young child of either sex; a baby. [Cf. Ir. bab, baban, W. baban, maban.]
amid prep.: In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
cranny n.: A small, narrow opening, fissure, crevice, or chink, as in a wall, or other substance. [F. cran notch, prob. from L. crena (a doubful word).]
gusty a.: Subject to, or characterized by, gusts or squalls; windy; stormy; tempestuous.
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.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

The Wind of Winter is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #7796; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: Madison Julius Cawein, The Wind of Winter, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/the-wind-of-winter.html, id L10925.

Form and metre

The Wind of Winter is 42 lines in 7 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABAB, complete in 5 of its 7 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.

See other poems in iambic tetrameter.

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 ABABAB death^A · door^B · entereth^A · hoar^B · breath^A · floor^B
2 ABABAB night^A · windowpane^B · white^A · vain^B · candlelight^A · strain^B
3 A--BAB voice^A · arms · noise · storms^B · rejoice^A · warms^B
4 ABABAB drowned^A · blows^B · round^A · toes^B · sound^A · snows^B
5 ABABAB thing^A · amid^B · sing^A · lid^B · string^A · hid^B
6 ABABAB whine^A · flue^B · pine^A · hue^B · shine^A · blue^B
7 ABAB-B dawn^A · broom^B · lawn^A · gloom^B · wan · bloom^B

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 tetrameter. How this is done.

Line	Syl.	Stress
The Winter Wind, the wind of death,	8	·/˘·····
Who knocked upon my door,	6	······
Now through the keyhole entereth,	8	···/·/˘˘
Invisible and hoar:	6	˘/˘˘··
He breathes around his icy breath	8	·····/˘·
And treads the flickering floor.	7	···/˘˘·
I heard him, wandering in the night,	8	···/˘···
Tap at my windowpane;	6	···/˘·
With ghostly fingers, snowy white,	8	·/˘/˘/˘·
I heard him tug in vain,	6	······
Until the shuddering candlelight	8	···/˘/˘·
Did cringe with fear and strain.	6	······
The fire, awakened by his voice,	8	·/˘/˘···
Leapt up with frantic arms,	6	···/˘·
Like some wild babe that greets with noise	8	········
Its father home who storms,	6	·/˘···
With rosy gestures that rejoice,	8	·/˘/˘·˘/
And crimson kiss that warms.	6	·/˘···
Now in the hearth he sits and, drowned	8	········
Among the ashes, blows;	6	···/˘·
Or through the room goes stealing round	8	·····/˘·
On cautious-creeping toes,	6	·/˘/˘·
Deep-mantled in the drowsy sound	8	·/˘··/˘·
Of night that sleets and snows.	6	······
And oft, like some thin faery-thing,	8	········
The stormy hush amid,	6	·/˘·˘/
I hear his captive trebles sing	8	···/˘/˘·
Beneath the kettle's lid;	6	···/˘·
Or now a harp of elfland string	8	·····/˘·
In some dark cranny hid.	6	···/˘·
Again I hear him, implike, whine,	8	˘/······
Cramped in the gusty flue;	6	···/˘·
Or knotted in the resinous pine	9	·/˘··/˘˘·
Raise goblin cry and hue,	6	·/˘···
While through the smoke his eyeballs shine,	8	·····/··
A sooty red and blue.	6	·/˘···
At last I hear him, nearing dawn,	8	·····/˘·
Take up his roaring broom,	6	···/˘·
And sweep wild leaves from wood and lawn,	8	········
And from the heavens the gloom,	7	···/˘··
To show the gaunt world lying wan,	8	·····/˘·
And morn's cold rose a-bloom.	6	······

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.

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