Bleak Weather
Dear Love, where the red lilies blossomed and grewThe white snows are falling;And all through the woods where I wandered with youThe loud winds are calling;And the robin that piped to us tune upon tune,Neath the oak, you remember,O'er hill-top and forest has followed the JuneAnd left us December.
He has left like a friend who is true in the sunAnd false in the shadows;He has found new delights in the land where he's gone,Greener woodlands and meadows.Let him go! what care we? let the snow shroud the lea,Let it drift on the heather;We can sing through it all: I have you, you have me.And we'll laugh at the weather.
The old year may die and a new year be bornThat is bleaker and colder:It cannot dismay us; we dare it, we scorn,For our love makes us bolder.Ah, Robin! sing loud on your far distant lea,You friend in fair weather!But here is a song sung that's fuller of glee,By two warm hearts together.
Words in this poem
- piped a.
- Formed with a pipe; having pipe or pipes; tubular.
- glee n.
- Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Bleak Weather is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Passion, Project Gutenberg ebook #16776; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Bleak Weather, in Poems of Passion (1883), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16776, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wilcox-passion/bleak-weather.html, id L22177.
Form and metre
Bleak Weather is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See other poems in anapaestic 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 A-A-BCBC grewA · falling · youA · calling · tuneB · rememberC · juneB · decemberC
- 2 -A-ABCBC sun · shadowsA · gone · meadowsA · leaB · heatherC · meB · weatherC
- 3 ABABCDCD bornA · colderB · scornA · bolderB · leaC · weatherD · gleeC · togetherD
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 anapaestic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Dear Love, where the red lilies blossomed and grew | 11 | ·····/˘/˘·· |
| The white snows are falling; | 6 | ····/˘ |
| And all through the woods where I wandered with you | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| The loud winds are calling; | 6 | ····/˘ |
| And the robin that piped to us tune upon tune, | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| Neath the oak, you remember, | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| O'er hill-top and forest has followed the June | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| And left us December. | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| He has left like a friend who is true in the sun | 12 | ············ |
| And false in the shadows; | 6 | ····/· |
| He has found new delights in the land where he's gone, | 12 | ····˘/······ |
| Greener woodlands and meadows. | 7 | /˘/˘·/· |
| Let him go! what care we? let the snow shroud the lea, | 12 | ············ |
| Let it drift on the heather; | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| We can sing through it all: I have you, you have me. | 12 | ············ |
| And we'll laugh at the weather. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The old year may die and a new year be born | 11 | ··········· |
| That is bleaker and colder: | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| It cannot dismay us; we dare it, we scorn, | 11 | ·˘/˘/······ |
| For our love makes us bolder. | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| Ah, Robin! sing loud on your far distant lea, | 11 | ·/˘·····/˘· |
| You friend in fair weather! | 6 | ····/˘ |
| But here is a song sung that's fuller of glee, | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| By two warm hearts together. | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
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.