Wind and Window Flower
LOVERS, forget your love,And list to the love of these,She a window flower,And he a winter breeze.When the frosty window veilWas melted down at noon,And the cagèd yellow birdHung over her in tune,He marked her through the pane,He could not help but mark,And only passed her by,To come again at dark.He was a winter wind,Concerned with ice and snow,Dead weeds and unmated birds,And little of love could know.But he sighed upon the sill,He gave the sash a shake,As witness all withinWho lay that night awake.Perchance he half prevailedTo win her for the flightFrom the firelit looking-glassAnd warm stove-window light.But the flower leaned asideAnd thought of naught to say,And morning found the breezeA hundred miles away.
COME with rain, O loud Southwester!Bring the singer, bring the nester;Give the buried flower a dream;Make the settled snow-bank steam;Find the brown beneath the white;But whate'er you do to-night,Bathe my window, make it flow,Melt it as the ices go;Melt the glass and leave the sticksLike a hermit's crucifix;Burst into my narrow stall;Swing the picture on the wall;Run the rattling pages o'er;Scatter poems on the floor;Turn the poet out of door.
Words in this poem
- pane n.
- The narrow edge of a hammer head. See Peen. [F. panne.]
- southwester n.
- A storm, gale, or strong wind from the southwest.
- crucifix n.
- A representation in art of the figure of Christ upon the cross; esp., the sculptured figure affixed to a real cross of wood, ivory, metal, or the like, used by the Roman Catholics in their devotions. [F. crucifix or LL. crucifixum, fr. L. crux, crucis, cross + figere, fixum, to fix. See Cross, and Fix, and cf. Crucify.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Wind and Window Flower is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Boy's Will, Project Gutenberg ebook #3021; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Frost, Wind and Window Flower, in A Boy's Will (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3021, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/frost-boys-will/wind-and-window-flower.html, id L04626.
Form and metre
Wind and Window Flower is 43 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.8 syllables. 3 lines end 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 trimeter.
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-B-B-C-C-D-D-E-E-F-F-GAG love · theseA · flower · breezeA · veil · noonB · bird · tuneB · pane · markC · by · darkC · wind · snowD · birds · knowD · sill · shakeE · within · awakeE · prevailed · flightF · glass · lightF · aside · sayG · breezeA · awayG
- 2 AABBCCDDEEFF-GG southwesterA · nesterA · dreamB · steamB · whiteC · nightC · flowD · goD · sticksE · crucifixE · stallF · wallF · o'er · floorG · doorG
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| LOVERS, forget your love, | 6 | /˘˘/·· |
| And list to the love of these, | 7 | ······· |
| She a window flower, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| And he a winter breeze. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| When the frosty window veil | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Was melted down at noon, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And the cagèd yellow bird | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Hung over her in tune, | 6 | ······ |
| He marked her through the pane, | 6 | ······ |
| He could not help but mark, | 6 | ······ |
| And only passed her by, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| To come again at dark. | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| He was a winter wind, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Concerned with ice and snow, | 6 | ˘/···· |
| Dead weeds and unmated birds, | 7 | ······· |
| And little of love could know. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| But he sighed upon the sill, | 7 | ······· |
| He gave the sash a shake, | 6 | ······ |
| As witness all within | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Who lay that night awake. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Perchance he half prevailed | 6 | ˘/··˘/ |
| To win her for the flight | 6 | ······ |
| From the firelit looking-glass | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And warm stove-window light. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| But the flower leaned aside | 6 | ··/·˘/ |
| And thought of naught to say, | 6 | ······ |
| And morning found the breeze | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| A hundred miles away. | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| COME with rain, O loud Southwester! | 8 | ········ |
| Bring the singer, bring the nester; | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Give the buried flower a dream; | 7 | ··/˘/·· |
| Make the settled snow-bank steam; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Find the brown beneath the white; | 7 | ······· |
| But whate'er you do to-night, | 8 | ·˘˘/···· |
| Bathe my window, make it flow, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Melt it as the ices go; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Melt the glass and leave the sticks | 7 | ······· |
| Like a hermit's crucifix; | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Burst into my narrow stall; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Swing the picture on the wall; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Run the rattling pages o'er; | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Scatter poems on the floor; | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Turn the poet out of door. | 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.