Winter Nights
Now winter nights enlargeThe number of their hours,And clouds their storms dischargeUpon the airy towers.Let now the chimneys blazeAnd cups o’erflow with wine;Let well-tuned words amazeWith harmony divine.Now yellow waxen lightsShall wait on honey love,While youthful revels, masques, and courtly sightsSleep’s leaden spells remove.
This time doth well dispenseWith lovers’ long discourse;Much speech hath some defenceThough beauty no remorse.All do not all things well;Some measures comely tread,Some knotted riddles tell,Some poems smoothly read.The summer hath his joys,And winter his delights;Though love and all his pleasures are but toys,They shorten tedious nights.
Words in this poem
- amaze v. t.
- To bewilder; to stupefy; to bring into a maze. [Pref. a- + maze.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- courtly a.
- Relating or belonging to a court. [From Court.]
- dispense v. i.
- To compensate; to make up; to make amends.
- defence n.
- The act of defending, or the state of being defended; protection, as from violence or danger. [F. défense, OF. defense, fem., defens, masc., fr. L. defensa (cf. Fence.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Winter Nights is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900, Project Gutenberg ebook #66619; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Campion, Winter Nights, in Poems (1567–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-thomas-campion/winter-nights.html, id L15996.
Form and metre
Winter Nights is 24 lines in 2 stanzas of 12 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCDCDEFEF. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.4 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 ABABCDCDEFEF enlargeA · hoursB · dischargeA · towersB · blazeC · wineD · amazeC · divineD · lightsE · loveF · sightsE · removeF
- 2 ABABCDCDEFEF dispenseA · discourseB · defenceA · remorseB · wellC · treadD · tellC · readD · joysE · delightsF · toysE · nightsF
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Now winter nights enlarge | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| The number of their hours, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| And clouds their storms discharge | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Upon the airy towers. | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Let now the chimneys blaze | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And cups o’erflow with wine; | 6 | ······ |
| Let well-tuned words amaze | 6 | ····˘/ |
| With harmony divine. | 6 | ·/˘˘˘/ |
| Now yellow waxen lights | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Shall wait on honey love, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| While youthful revels, masques, and courtly sights | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Sleep’s leaden spells remove. | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| This time doth well dispense | 6 | ····˘/ |
| With lovers’ long discourse; | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| Much speech hath some defence | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Though beauty no remorse. | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| All do not all things well; | 6 | ······ |
| Some measures comely tread, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Some knotted riddles tell, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Some poems smoothly read. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| The summer hath his joys, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And winter his delights; | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Though love and all his pleasures are but toys, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| They shorten tedious nights. | 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.