A Winter Phantasy
The day was all delight,Chorus and golden tune;Rides the steep nightThe white ship of the moon.
Now that the night is comeAnd silence wakes to power,All that was dumbHas its triumphal hour.
My soul, behold a sailThe seas of Heaven upon,Rise up and hailThat roving galleon.
High above winter frostSpeed on uncharted ways,Enraptured, lost,Past thrall of nights and days.
Burnt fervent-white with rime,The blurred earth hangs beneath,Frost-light sublime,Frost-tapers lit for death.
Look down the mists and seeThe orchards mazed with snow;Grey, tangled tree,Lichen and mistletoe.
But, ere the dim world fallsEngulfed, upon your track,Even at Heaven’s walls,Turn back, turn back!
And as the miles decrease,By all that foils regret,By all that is your peace,My soul, forget.
Words in this poem
- triumphal n.
- A token of victory.
- galleon n.
- A sailing vessel of the 15th and following centuries, often having three or four decks, and used for war or commerce. The term is often rather indiscriminately applied to any large sailing vessel. [Sp. galeon, cf. F. galion; fr. LL. galeo, galio. See Galley.]
- rime n.
- A rent or long aperture; a chink; a fissure; a crack. Sir T. [L. rima.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Winter Phantasy is in the public domain. This text is taken from Bonnie Joann, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #69484; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Violet Jacob, A Winter Phantasy, in Bonnie Joann, and Other Poems (1921), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #69484, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/jacob-bonnie-joann/a-winter-phantasy.html, id L21955.
Form and metre
A Winter Phantasy is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 7 of its 8 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 ABAB delightA · tuneB · nightA · moonB
- 2 ABAB comeA · powerB · dumbA · hourB
- 3 ABAB sailA · uponB · hailA · galleonB
- 4 ABAB frostA · waysB · lostA · daysB
- 5 A-A- rimeA · beneath · sublimeA · death
- 6 ABAB seeA · snowB · treeA · mistletoeB
- 7 ABAB fallsA · trackB · wallsA · backB
- 8 ABAB decreaseA · regretB · peaceA · forgetB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The day was all delight, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Chorus and golden tune; | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Rides the steep night | 4 | ···· |
| The white ship of the moon. | 6 | ······ |
| Now that the night is come | 6 | ······ |
| And silence wakes to power, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| All that was dumb | 4 | ···· |
| Has its triumphal hour. | 7 | ··˘/˘/˘ |
| My soul, behold a sail | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| The seas of Heaven upon, | 6 | ···/·· |
| Rise up and hail | 4 | ···· |
| That roving galleon. | 6 | ·/˘/˘˘ |
| High above winter frost | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Speed on uncharted ways, | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Enraptured, lost, | 4 | ˘/˘· |
| Past thrall of nights and days. | 6 | ······ |
| Burnt fervent-white with rime, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The blurred earth hangs beneath, | 6 | ······ |
| Frost-light sublime, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Frost-tapers lit for death. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Look down the mists and see | 6 | ······ |
| The orchards mazed with snow; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Grey, tangled tree, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Lichen and mistletoe. | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| But, ere the dim world falls | 6 | ······ |
| Engulfed, upon your track, | 6 | ˘/···· |
| Even at Heaven’s walls, | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Turn back, turn back! | 4 | ···· |
| And as the miles decrease, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| By all that foils regret, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| By all that is your peace, | 6 | ······ |
| My soul, forget. | 4 | ··˘/ |
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.