Winter in the Country
Sweet life! how lovely to be hereAnd feel the soft sea-laden breezeStrike my flushed face, the spruce’s fairFree limbs to see, the lesser trees’
Bare hands to touch, the sparrow’s cheepTo heed, and watch his nimble flightAbove the short brown grass asleep.Love glorious in his friendly might,
Music that every heart could bless,And thoughts of life serene, divine,Beyond my power to express,Crowd round this lifted heart of mine!
But oh! to leave this paradiseFor the city’s dirty basement room,Where, beauty hidden from the eyes,A table, bed, bureau and broom
In corner set, two crippled chairsAll covered up with dust and grimWith hideousness and scars of years,And gaslight burning weird and dim,
Will welcome me.... And yet, and yetThis very wind, the winter birds,The glory of the soft sunset,Come there to me in words.
Words in this poem
- cheep v. i.
- To chirp, as a young bird. [Cf. Chirp]
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- crippled a.
- Lamed; lame; disabled; impeded.
- gaslight n.
- The light yielded by the combustion of illuminating gas.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Winter in the Country 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, Winter in the Country, in Harlem Shadows (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #64989, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mckay-harlem-shadows/winter-in-the-country.html, id L01365.
Form and metre
Winter in the Country is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 4 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 42% 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 hereA · breezeB · fairA · treesB
- 2 ABAB cheepA · flightB · asleepA · mightB
- 3 ABAB blessA · divineB · expressA · mineB
- 4 -A-A paradise · roomA · eyes · broomA
- 5 -A-A chairs · grimA · years · dimA
- 6 ABAB yetA · birdsB · sunsetA · wordsB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sweet life! how lovely to be here | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And feel the soft sea-laden breeze | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Strike my flushed face, the spruce’s fair | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Free limbs to see, the lesser trees’ | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Bare hands to touch, the sparrow’s cheep | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To heed, and watch his nimble flight | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Above the short brown grass asleep. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Love glorious in his friendly might, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Music that every heart could bless, | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| And thoughts of life serene, divine, | 8 | ····˘/˘/ |
| Beyond my power to express, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Crowd round this lifted heart of mine! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But oh! to leave this paradise | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| For the city’s dirty basement room, | 9 | ··/˘/˘/˘· |
| Where, beauty hidden from the eyes, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| A table, bed, bureau and broom | 8 | ·/˘·/˘·· |
| In corner set, two crippled chairs | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| All covered up with dust and grim | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| With hideousness and scars of years, | 8 | ········ |
| And gaslight burning weird and dim, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Will welcome me.... And yet, and yet | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| This very wind, the winter birds, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The glory of the soft sunset, | 8 | ·/˘···/· |
| Come there to me in words. | 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.