Winter-Night
Wild winter night! the falling flakes of snowAre by the storm-wind driven. Snow flakes—no!These are the fancies of bewildered thought,The scattered fragments my soul's dreams have wrought.
The midnight comes in robes of darkness clouded,I see three spirits in its mantling shrouded;Lost here below, they winged their flight above,I see their unveiled features—Faith! Hope! Love!
They live not upon earth, they murdered me;And now they quit their grave of mysteryAt midnight, and with melancholy sigh,Remind me of the happier days gone by.
The storms break through the clouds; on the pale rays,Which march with heaven's bright armaments, I gaze;But in the distance, thro' the misty flood,The scattered stars appear like drops of blood.
And who shall say they are not blood recordsOf murderous man's ferocious deeds and words?Upon the field still Abel's blood remains,And men in sportive mood have called them Cains!
Burst, tempests! in your wrath—your curses bring—Shatter the clouds—upon my forehead flingYour bolts—uprooting my dishevelled hair,And crush my heart that's writhing in despair.
How that heart beats—a heavy fragment rolledDown a steep mountain, from some ruin old;An icicle that drops upon a pall,And makes the mourner shudder at its fall.
Thou art the pall, my bosom! and there dwellsIn thee a heart, as cold as icicles;Thou art a living grave, upon whose bedLie wrecked and ruined hopes, and memories dead.
The storm is passed, the tranquil moonbeams gild,With glittering smiles, the forest and the field;I wend my homeward way—alas! to meThe moonbeams tell of nought but misery.
Words in this poem
- mantling n.
- The representation of a mantle, or the drapery behind and around a coat of arms: -- called also lambrequin.
- remind v. t.
- To put (one) in mind of something; to bring to the remembrance of; to bring to the notice or consideration of (a person).
- 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,]
- icicle n.
- A pendent, and usually conical, mass of ice, formed by freezing of dripping water; as, the icicles on the eaves of a house. [OE. isikel, AS. isgicel; is ice + gicel icicle; akin to Icel. jökull; cf. Gael. eigh ice, Ir. aigh.]
- mourner n.
- One who mourns or is grieved at any misfortune, as the death of a friend.
- wend n.
- A large extent of ground; a perambulation; a circuit.
- homeward a.
- Being in the direction of home; as, the homeward way.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Winter-Night is in the public domain. This text is taken from Translations from Alexander Petofi, the Magyar Poet, by Sir John Bowring (London: Trübner & Co., 1866), Internet Archive, the John Bowring translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sándor Petőfi, Winter-Night, in Translations from Alexander Petofi, the Magyar Poet (1866), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petofi-poems-bowring/winter-night.html, id L29846.
Form and metre
Winter-Night is 36 lines in 9 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 7 of its 9 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See 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 AABB snowA · noA · thoughtB · wroughtB
- 2 AABB cloudedA · shroudedA · aboveB · loveB
- 3 A-AA meA · mystery · sighA · byA
- 4 AABB raysA · gazeA · floodB · bloodB
- 5 AABB recordsA · wordsA · remainsB · cainsB
- 6 AABB bringA · flingA · hairB · despairB
- 7 AABB rolledA · oldA · pallB · fallB
- 8 AABB dwellsA · iciclesA · bedB · deadB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wild winter night! the falling flakes of snow | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Are by the storm-wind driven. Snow flakes—no! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| These are the fancies of bewildered thought, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| The scattered fragments my soul's dreams have wrought. | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| The midnight comes in robes of darkness clouded, | 11 | ·/·····/˘/˘ |
| I see three spirits in its mantling shrouded; | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Lost here below, they winged their flight above, | 10 | ·········· |
| I see their unveiled features—Faith! Hope! Love! | 10 | ···˘//˘··· |
| They live not upon earth, they murdered me; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And now they quit their grave of mystery | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| At midnight, and with melancholy sigh, | 10 | ·/···/˘·˘· |
| Remind me of the happier days gone by. | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| The storms break through the clouds; on the pale rays, | 10 | ·········· |
| Which march with heaven's bright armaments, I gaze; | 10 | ···/˘·/˘·· |
| But in the distance, thro' the misty flood, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The scattered stars appear like drops of blood. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| And who shall say they are not blood records | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Of murderous man's ferocious deeds and words? | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Upon the field still Abel's blood remains, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| And men in sportive mood have called them Cains! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Burst, tempests! in your wrath—your curses bring— | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Shatter the clouds—upon my forehead fling | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Your bolts—uprooting my dishevelled hair, | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| And crush my heart that's writhing in despair. | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| How that heart beats—a heavy fragment rolled | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Down a steep mountain, from some ruin old; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| An icicle that drops upon a pall, | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| And makes the mourner shudder at its fall. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Thou art the pall, my bosom! and there dwells | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| In thee a heart, as cold as icicles; | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Thou art a living grave, upon whose bed | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Lie wrecked and ruined hopes, and memories dead. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The storm is passed, the tranquil moonbeams gild, | 10 | ·····/˘/·· |
| With glittering smiles, the forest and the field; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| I wend my homeward way—alas! to me | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| The moonbeams tell of nought but misery. | 10 | ·/·····/˘˘ |
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