After the Winter
Some day, when trees have shed their leavesAnd against the morning’s whiteThe shivering birds beneath the eavesHave sheltered for the night,We’ll turn our faces southward, love,Toward the summer isleWhere bamboos spire to shafted groveAnd wide-mouthed orchids smile.
And we will seek the quiet hillWhere towers the cotton tree,And leaps the laughing crystal rill,And works the droning bee.And we will build a cottage thereBeside an open glade,With black-ribbed blue-bells blowing near,And ferns that never fade.
Words in this poem
- isle v. t.
- To cause to become an island, or like an island; to surround or encompass; to island.
- shafted a.
- Furnished with a shaft, or with shafts; as, a shafted arch.
- rill n.
- A very small brook; a streamlet. [Cf. LG. rille a small channel or brook, a furrow, a chamfer, OE. rigol a small brook, F. rigole a trench or furrow for water, W. rhill a row, rhigol a little di]
- glade n.
- An open passage through a wood; a grassy open or cleared space in a forest. [Prob. of Scand. origin, and akin to glad, a.; cf. also W. golead, goleuad, a lighting, illumination, fr. goleu light, clear, bright, goleu fwlch glade, lit., a ]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
After the Winter is in the public domain. This text is taken from Harlem shadows, Project Gutenberg ebook #64989; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Claude McKay, After the Winter, in Harlem Shadows (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #64989, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mckay-harlem-shadows/after-the-winter.html, id L01349.
Form and metre
After the Winter is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.3 syllables. 44% 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 ABAB-C-C leavesA · whiteB · eavesA · nightB · love · isleC · grove · smileC
- 2 ABABCDCD hillA · treeB · rillA · beeB · thereC · gladeD · nearC · fadeD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Some day, when trees have shed their leaves | 8 | ········ |
| And against the morning’s white | 7 | ····/˘· |
| The shivering birds beneath the eaves | 9 | ·/˘˘····· |
| Have sheltered for the night, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| We’ll turn our faces southward, love, | 9 | ··/˘/˘/˘· |
| Toward the summer isle | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Where bamboos spire to shafted grove | 8 | ·˘/··/˘· |
| And wide-mouthed orchids smile. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And we will seek the quiet hill | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Where towers the cotton tree, | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| And leaps the laughing crystal rill, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And works the droning bee. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And we will build a cottage there | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Beside an open glade, | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| With black-ribbed blue-bells blowing near, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And ferns that never fade. | 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.