To Winter
Stay, season of calm love and soulful snows!There is a subtle sweetness in the sun,The ripples on the stream’s breast gaily run,The wind more boisterously by me blows,And each succeeding day now longer grows.The birds a gladder music have begun,The squirrel, full of mischief and of fun,From maples’ topmost branch the brown twig throws.I read these pregnant signs, know what they mean:I know that thou art making ready to go.Oh stay! I fled a land where fields are greenAlways, and palms wave gently to and fro,And winds are balmy, blue brooks ever sheen,To ease my heart of its impassioned woe.
Words in this poem
- gaily adv.
- Merrily; showily. See gaily. [From Gay.]
- boisterously adv.
- In a boisterous manner.
- gladder n.
- One who makes glad.
- balmy a.
- Having the qualities of balm; odoriferous; aromatic; assuaging; soothing; refreshing; mild.
- sheen v. i.
- To shine; to glisten.
- impassioned p. p.
- Actuated or characterized by passion or zeal; showing warmth of feeling; ardent; animated; excited; as, an impassioned orator or discourse.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To 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, To Winter, in Harlem Shadows (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #64989, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mckay-harlem-shadows/to-winter.html, id L01366.
Form and metre
To Winter is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCDCD, the pattern of the Italian sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 7% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other Italian sonnets, 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 ABBAABBACDCDCD snowsA · sunB · runB · blowsA · growsA · begunB · funB · throwsA · meanC · goD · greenC · froD · sheenC · woeD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Stay, season of calm love and soulful snows! | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| There is a subtle sweetness in the sun, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| The ripples on the stream’s breast gaily run, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| The wind more boisterously by me blows, | 10 | ···/˘˘˘··· |
| And each succeeding day now longer grows. | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| The birds a gladder music have begun, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| The squirrel, full of mischief and of fun, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| From maples’ topmost branch the brown twig throws. | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| I read these pregnant signs, know what they mean: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| I know that thou art making ready to go. | 11 | ·····/˘/˘·· |
| Oh stay! I fled a land where fields are green | 10 | ·········· |
| Always, and palms wave gently to and fro, | 10 | /····/˘··· |
| And winds are balmy, blue brooks ever sheen, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| To ease my heart of its impassioned woe. | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
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.