Winter Dream
Oh wind-swept towers,Oh endlessly blossoming trees,White clouds and lucid eyes,And pools in the rocks whose unplumbed blue is pregnantWith who knows what of subtletyAnd magical curves and limbs--White Anadyomene and her shallow breastsMother-of-pearled with light.
And oh the April, April of straight soft hair,Falling smooth as the mountain water and brown;The April of little leaves unblinded,Of rosy nipples and innocenceAnd the blue languor of weary eyelids.
Across a huge gulf I fling my voiceAnd my desires together:Across a huge gulf ... on the other bankCrouches April with her hair as smooth and straight and brownAs falling waters.Oh brave curve upwards and outwards.Oh despair of the downward tilting--Despair still beautifulAs a great star one has watched all nightWheeling down under the hills.Silence widens and darkens;Voice and desires have dropped out of sight.I am all alone, dreaming she would come and kiss me.
Words in this poem
- endlessly adv.
- In an endless manner.
- subtlety n.
- The quality or state of being subtle, or sly; cunning; craftiness; artfulness. [OE. sotelte, sutilte, OF. sotillete, L. subtilitas. See Subtle, and cf. Subtility.]
- outwards adv.
- From the interior part; in a direction from the interior toward the exterior; out; to the outside; beyond; off; away; as, a ship bound outward. [AS. . See Out, and -ward, -wards.]
- wheeling n.
- The act of conveying anything, or traveling, on wheels, or in a wheeled vehicle.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Winter Dream is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Defeat of Youth, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #24364; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Aldous Huxley, Winter Dream, in The Defeat of Youth, and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #24364, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/huxley-defeat-of-youth/winter-dream.html, id L22010.
Form and metre
Winter Dream is 26 lines in 3 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
See 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 AAA----- towersA · treesA · eyesA · pregnant · subtlety · limbs · breasts · light
- 3 --------A--A- voice · together · bank · brown · waters · outwards · tilting · beautiful · nightA · hills · darkens · sightA · me
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oh wind-swept towers, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Oh endlessly blossoming trees, | 8 | ·/˘˘/˘˘· |
| White clouds and lucid eyes, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And pools in the rocks whose unplumbed blue is pregnant | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| With who knows what of subtlety | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| And magical curves and limbs-- | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| White Anadyomene and her shallow breasts | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Mother-of-pearled with light. | 6 | /˘···· |
| And oh the April, April of straight soft hair, | 11 | ···/˘/˘···· |
| Falling smooth as the mountain water and brown; | 11 | /˘···/˘/˘·· |
| The April of little leaves unblinded, | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| Of rosy nipples and innocence | 9 | ·/˘/˘·/˘˘ |
| And the blue languor of weary eyelids. | 10 | ···/˘·/˘/· |
| Across a huge gulf I fling my voice | 9 | ˘/······· |
| And my desires together: | 8 | ··˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Across a huge gulf ... on the other bank | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| Crouches April with her hair as smooth and straight and brown | 13 | /˘/˘········· |
| As falling waters. | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| Oh brave curve upwards and outwards. | 8 | ···/˘·/˘ |
| Oh despair of the downward tilting-- | 9 | ·˘/··/˘/˘ |
| Despair still beautiful | 6 | ˘/·/˘˘ |
| As a great star one has watched all night | 10 | ·······˘·· |
| Wheeling down under the hills. | 7 | /˘····· |
| Silence widens and darkens; | 7 | /˘/˘·/˘ |
| Voice and desires have dropped out of sight. | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| I am all alone, dreaming she would come and kiss me. | 13 | ···˘//˘······ |
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.