Before Winter
The day is gone of the sun and the swallowAnd the glory on the trees:Before the gale the length of the paveThe dry old corpse of a plane-leaf flees,And its step is harsh and hollowAs it chatters into its grave.
The shivering dawn now hides and slouchesLong in the cover of dark,Till up the sky, like a murderer pale,He drags at last a dull red mark,And the hound of the grey wind crouchesAnd pants on his rusty trail.
Words in this poem
- pave n.
- The pavement. Nymphe du pavé ([A low euphemism.] [F., from paver to pave. See Pave.]
- corpse n.
- A human body in general, whether living or dead; -- sometimes contemptuosly. [OF. cors (sometimes written corps), F. corps, L. corpus; akin to AS. hrif womb. See Midriff, and cf. Corse, Corselet, Corps, Cuerpo.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Before Winter is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sonnets and Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #56244; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Eleanor Farjeon, Before Winter, in Sonnets and Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56244, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/farjeon-sonnets-poems/before-winter.html, id L21985.
Form and metre
Before Winter is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABCBAC. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%).
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 ABCBAC swallowA · treesB · paveC · fleesB · hollowA · graveC
- 2 ABCBAC slouchesA · darkB · paleC · markB · crouchesA · trailC
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 day is gone of the sun and the swallow | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| And the glory on the trees: | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Before the gale the length of the pave | 9 | ········· |
| The dry old corpse of a plane-leaf flees, | 9 | ········· |
| And its step is harsh and hollow | 8 | ······/˘ |
| As it chatters into its grave. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| The shivering dawn now hides and slouches | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Long in the cover of dark, | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Till up the sky, like a murderer pale, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| He drags at last a dull red mark, | 8 | ········ |
| And the hound of the grey wind crouches | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| And pants on his rusty trail. | 7 | ····/˘· |
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.