Winter
The bloom of tenderer flowers is pastAnd lilies droop forlorn,For winter-time is come at last,Rich with its ripened corn;Yet for the wealth of blossoms lostSome hardier flowers appearThat bid defiance to the frostOf sterner days, my dear.
The vines, remembering summer, shiverIn frosty winds, and gainA fuller life from mere endeavourTo live through all that pain;Yet in the struggle and acquistThey turn as pale and wanAs lonely women who have missedKnown love, now lost and gone.
Then may these winter days show forthTo you each known delight,Bring all that women count as worthPure happiness and bright;While villages, with bustling cry,Bring home the ripened corn,And herons wheel through wintry sky,Forget sad thoughts forlorn.
Words in this poem
- forlorn a.
- Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
- sterner n.
- A director. Dr. R. Clerke. [See 3d Stern.]
- endeavour v. t.
- To exert physical or intellectual strength for the attainment of; to use efforts to effect; to strive to achieve or reach; to try; to attempt. [OE. endevor; pref. en- + dever, devoir, duty, F. devoir: cf. F. se mettre en devoir de faire quelque chose to try to do a thing, to go about it. See Devoir, Deb]
- acquist n.
- Acquisition; gain. [Cf. Acquest.]
- bustling a.
- Agitated; noisy; tumultuous; characterized by confused activity; as, a bustling crowd.
- wintry a.
- Suitable to winter; resembling winter, or what belongs to winter; brumal; hyemal; cold; stormy; wintery. [AS. wintrig.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Winter is in the public domain. This text is taken from Shakuntala and Other Works, Project Gutenberg ebook #16659, the Arthur W. Ryder translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Kalidasa, Winter, in Shakuntala and Other Works (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16659, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kalidasa-shakuntala/winter.html, id L15658.
Form and metre
Winter is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter. 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABABCDCD pastA · forlornB · lastA · cornB · lostC · appearD · frostC · dearD
- 2 -A-AB-B- shiver · gainA · endeavour · painA · acquistB · wan · missedB · gone
- 3 -A-ABCBC forth · delightA · worth · brightA · cryB · cornC · skyB · forlornC
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 bloom of tenderer flowers is past | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| And lilies droop forlorn, | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| For winter-time is come at last, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Rich with its ripened corn; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Yet for the wealth of blossoms lost | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Some hardier flowers appear | 8 | ·/˘˘/˘˘/ |
| That bid defiance to the frost | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Of sterner days, my dear. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The vines, remembering summer, shiver | 10 | ··˘/˘˘/˘/˘ |
| In frosty winds, and gain | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| A fuller life from mere endeavour | 9 | ·/˘···˘/˘ |
| To live through all that pain; | 6 | ······ |
| Yet in the struggle and acquist | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| They turn as pale and wan | 6 | ······ |
| As lonely women who have missed | 9 | ·/˘/˘···˘ |
| Known love, now lost and gone. | 6 | ······ |
| Then may these winter days show forth | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To you each known delight, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Bring all that women count as worth | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Pure happiness and bright; | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| While villages, with bustling cry, | 9 | ·/˘˘·/˘˘· |
| Bring home the ripened corn, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And herons wheel through wintry sky, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Forget sad thoughts forlorn. | 6 | ˘/··˘/ |
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.