To a Cold Beauty
Lady, wouldst thou heiress beTo Winters cold and cruel part?When he sets the rivers free,Thou dost still lock up thy heart;--Thou that shouldst outlast the snow,But in the whiteness of thy brow?
Scorn and cold neglect are madeFor winter gloom and winter wind,But thou wilt wrong the summer air,Breathing it to words unkind,--Breath which only should belongTo love, to sunlight, and to song!
When the little buds unclose.Red, and white, and pied, and blue,And that virgin flow'r, the rose,Opes her heart to hold the dew,Wilt thou lock thy bosom upWith no jewel in its cup?
Let not cold December sitThus in Love's peculiar throne:Brooklets are not prison'd now,But crystal frosts are all agone,And that which hangs upon the spray,It is no snow, but flow'r of May!
Words in this poem
- heiress
- , A female heir.
- outlast v. t.
- To exceed in duration; to survive; to endure longer than.
- unkind a.
- Having no race or kindred; childless. [See Kin kindred.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To a Cold Beauty is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood, Project Gutenberg ebook #15652; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Hood, To a Cold Beauty, in The Song of the Shirt, and Other Poems (1826–1845), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15652, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hood-poetical-works/to-a-cold-beauty.html, id L20060.
Form and metre
To a Cold Beauty is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 ABAB-- beA · partB · freeA · heartB · snow · brow
- 2 -A-ABB made · windA · air · unkindA · belongB · songB
- 3 ABABCC uncloseA · blueB · roseA · dewB · upC · cupC
- 4 -A-ABB sit · throneA · now · agoneA · sprayB · mayB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Lady, wouldst thou heiress be | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| To Winters cold and cruel part? | 7 | ·/˘··/· |
| When he sets the rivers free, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Thou dost still lock up thy heart;-- | 7 | ······· |
| Thou that shouldst outlast the snow, | 7 | ···/··· |
| But in the whiteness of thy brow? | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Scorn and cold neglect are made | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| For winter gloom and winter wind, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| But thou wilt wrong the summer air, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Breathing it to words unkind,-- | 7 | /˘···˘/ |
| Breath which only should belong | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| To love, to sunlight, and to song! | 8 | ···/···· |
| When the little buds unclose. | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Red, and white, and pied, and blue, | 7 | ······· |
| And that virgin flow'r, the rose, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Opes her heart to hold the dew, | 7 | ······· |
| Wilt thou lock thy bosom up | 7 | ····/˘· |
| With no jewel in its cup? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Let not cold December sit | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Thus in Love's peculiar throne: | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Brooklets are not prison'd now, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| But crystal frosts are all agone, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| And that which hangs upon the spray, | 8 | ········ |
| It is no snow, but flow'r of May! | 8 | ········ |
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.