Sounds of the Winter
Sounds of the winter too,Sunshine upon the mountains--many a distant strainFrom cheery railroad train--from nearer field, barn, house,The whispering air--even the mute crops, garner’d apples, corn,Children’s and women’s tones--rhythm of many a farmer and of flail,An old man’s garrulous lips among the rest, Think not we give out yet,Forth from these snowy hairs we keep up yet the lilt.
Words in this poem
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- garrulous a.
- Talking much, especially about commonplace or trivial things; talkative; loquacious. [L. garrulus, fr. garrire to chatter, talk; cf. Gr. Call.]
- snowy a.
- White like snow.
- lilt v. i.
- To do anything with animation and quickness, as to skip, fly, or hop. [Cf. Norw. lilla, lirla, to sing in a high tone.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sounds of the Winter is in the public domain. This text is taken from Leaves of Grass, Project Gutenberg ebook #1322; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walt Whitman, Sounds of the Winter, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/sounds-of-the-winter.html, id L04135.
Form and metre
Sounds of the Winter is 7 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The lines average 13.1 syllables.
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.
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Sounds of the winter too, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Sunshine upon the mountains--many a distant strain | 13 | /····/˘/˘·/˘· |
| From cheery railroad train--from nearer field, barn, house, | 12 | ·/˘/···/˘··· |
| The whispering air--even the mute crops, garner’d apples, corn, | 15 | ·/˘˘·/˘···/˘/˘· |
| Children’s and women’s tones--rhythm of many a farmer and of flail, | 17 | /˘·/˘·/˘·/˘·/˘··· |
| An old man’s garrulous lips among the rest, Think not we give out yet, | 17 | ···/˘˘··········· |
| Forth from these snowy hairs we keep up yet the lilt. | 12 | ···/˘······· |
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.