A Winter's Day
Across the hills and down the narrow ways,And up the valley where the free winds sweep,The earth is folded in an ermined sleepThat mocks the melting mirth of myriad Mays.Departed her disheartening duns and grays,And all her crusty black is covered deep.Dark streams are locked in Winter's donjon-keep,And made to shine with keen, unwonted rays.O icy mantle, and deceitful snow!What world-old liars in your hearts ye are!Are there not still the darkened seam and scarBeneath the brightness that you fain would show?Come from the cover with thy blot and blur,O reeking Earth, thou whited sepulchre!
Words in this poem
- ermined a.
- Clothed or adorned with the fur of the ermine.
- myriad n.
- The number of ten thousand; ten thousand persons or things. [Gr. myriade.]
- crusty a.
- Having the nature of crust; pertaining to a hard covering; as, a crusty coat; a crusty surface or substance.
- unwonted a.
- Not wonted; unaccustomed; unused; not made familiar by practice; as, a child unwonted to strangers.
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- sepulchre n.
- The place in which the dead body of a human being is interred, or a place set apart for that purpose; a grave; a tomb. [OE. sepulcre, OF. sepulcre, F. sépulcre, fr. L. sepulcrum, sepulchrum, fr. sepelire to bury.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Winter's Day is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Project Gutenberg ebook #18338; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Paul Laurence Dunbar, A Winter's Day, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/a-winter-s-day.html, id L00652.
Form and metre
A Winter's Day is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBAABBACDDC-- waysA · sweepB · sleepB · maysA · graysA · deepB · keepB · raysA · snowC · areD · scarD · showC · blur · sepulchre
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Across the hills and down the narrow ways, | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| And up the valley where the free winds sweep, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The earth is folded in an ermined sleep | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| That mocks the melting mirth of myriad Mays. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Departed her disheartening duns and grays, | 10 | ˘/˘·˘/˘··· |
| And all her crusty black is covered deep. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Dark streams are locked in Winter's donjon-keep, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| And made to shine with keen, unwonted rays. | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| O icy mantle, and deceitful snow! | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| What world-old liars in your hearts ye are! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Are there not still the darkened seam and scar | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Beneath the brightness that you fain would show? | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Come from the cover with thy blot and blur, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| O reeking Earth, thou whited sepulchre! | 9 | ·/˘··/˘·· |
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.