Winter-Song
Oh, who would be sad tho' the sky be a-graying,And meadow and woodlands are empty and bare;For softly and merrily now there come playing,The little white birds thro' the winter-kissed air.
The squirrel's enjoying the rest of the thrifty,He munches his store in the old hollow tree;Tho' cold is the blast and the snow-flakes are driftyHe fears the white flock not a whit more than we.
Then heigho for the flying snow!Over the whitened roads we go,With pulses that tingle,And sleigh-bells a-jingleFor winter's white birds here's a cheery heigho!
Words in this poem
- drifty a.
- Full of drifts; tending to form drifts, as snow, and the like.
- whit n.
- The smallest part or particle imaginable; a bit; a jot; an iota; -- generally used in an adverbial phrase in a negative sentence. [OE. wight, wiht, AS. wiht a creature, a thing. See Wight, and cf. Aught, Naught.]
- tingle v. i.
- To feel a kind of thrilling sensation, as in hearing a shrill sound. [Freq. of ting. Cf. Tinkle.]
- jingle v. i.
- To sound with a fine, sharp, rattling, clinking, or tinkling sound; as, sleigh bells jingle. [OE. gingelen, ginglen; prob. akin to E. chink; cf. also E. jangle.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Winter-Song 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, Winter-Song, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/winter-song.html, id L00805.
Form and metre
Winter-Song is 13 lines in 3 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 15% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in anapaestic 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 ABAB grayingA · bareB · playingA · airB
- 2 ABAB thriftyA · treeB · driftyA · weB
- 3 AABB- snowA · goA · tingleB · jingleB · heigho
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 anapaestic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, who would be sad tho' the sky be a-graying, | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| And meadow and woodlands are empty and bare; | 11 | ·/··/··/˘·· |
| For softly and merrily now there come playing, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘···/˘ |
| The little white birds thro' the winter-kissed air. | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| The squirrel's enjoying the rest of the thrifty, | 12 | ·/˘˘/˘····/˘ |
| He munches his store in the old hollow tree; | 11 | ·/˘·····/˘· |
| Tho' cold is the blast and the snow-flakes are drifty | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| He fears the white flock not a whit more than we. | 11 | ··········· |
| Then heigho for the flying snow! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Over the whitened roads we go, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| With pulses that tingle, | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| And sleigh-bells a-jingle | 6 | ····/˘ |
| For winter's white birds here's a cheery heigho! | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
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.