A Winter's Tale
YESTERDAY the fields were only grey with scatteredsnow,And now the longest grass-leaves hardly emerge;Yet her deep footsteps mark the snow, and goOn towards the pines at the hills' white verge.
I cannot see her, since the mist's white scarfObscures the dark wood and the dull orange sky;But she's waiting, I know, impatient and cold, halfSobs struggling into her frosty sigh.
Why does she come so promptly, when she mustknowThat she's only the nearer to the inevitable farewell;The hill is steep, on the snow my steps are slow--Why does she come, when she knows what I have totell?
Words in this poem
- promptly adv.
- In a prompt manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Winter's Tale is in the public domain. This text is taken from Amores: Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #22531; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: D. H. Lawrence, A Winter's Tale, in Amores (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22531, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lawrence-amores/a-winter-s-tale.html, id L13554.
Form and metre
A Winter's Tale is 15 lines in 3 stanzas. 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 47% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 scattered · snowA · emergeB · goA · vergeB
- 2 -A-A scarf · skyA · half · sighA
- 3 -ABA-B must · knowA · farewellB · slowA · to · tellB
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| YESTERDAY the fields were only grey with scattered | 12 | /˘····/˘··/˘ |
| snow, | 1 | · |
| And now the longest grass-leaves hardly emerge; | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Yet her deep footsteps mark the snow, and go | 10 | ···/······ |
| On towards the pines at the hills' white verge. | 10 | ·········· |
| I cannot see her, since the mist's white scarf | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Obscures the dark wood and the dull orange sky; | 11 | ˘/······/˘· |
| But she's waiting, I know, impatient and cold, half | 12 | ··/˘··˘/˘··· |
| Sobs struggling into her frosty sigh. | 10 | ·/˘˘···/˘· |
| Why does she come so promptly, when she must | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| know | 1 | · |
| That she's only the nearer to the inevitable farewell; | 14 | ··/˘·/˘··˘/˘·/ |
| The hill is steep, on the snow my steps are slow-- | 11 | ··········· |
| Why does she come, when she knows what I have to | 11 | ··········· |
| tell? | 1 | · |
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.