Written in Germany, on One of the Coldest Days of the Century
A plague on your languages, German and Norse!Let me have the song of the kettle;And the tongs and the poker, instead of that horseThat gallops away with such fury and forceOn this dreary dull plate of black metal.See that Fly, --a disconsolate creature! perhapsA child of the field or the grove;And, sorrow for him! the dull treacherous heatHas seduced the poor fool from his winter retreat,And he creeps to the edge of my stove.
Alas! how he fumbles about the domainsWhich this comfortless oven environ!He cannot find out in what track he must crawl,Now back to the tiles, then in search of the wall,And now on the brink of the iron.
Stock-still there he stands like a traveller bemazed:The best of his skill he has tried;His feelers, methinks, I can see him put forthTo the east and the west, to the south and the northBut he finds neither guide-post nor guide.
His spindles sink under him, foot, leg, and thigh!His eyesight and hearing are lost;Between life and death his blood freezes and thaws;And his two pretty pinions of blue dusky gauzeAre glued to his sides by the frost.
No brother, no mate has he near him--while ICan draw warmth from the cheek of my Love;As blest and as glad, in this desolate gloom,As if green summer grass were the floor of my room,And woodbines were hanging above.
Yet, God is my witness, thou small helpless Thing!Thy life I would gladly sustainTill summer come up from the south, and with crowdsOf thy brethren a march thou should'st sound through the clouds.And back to the forests again!
Words in this poem
- norse a.
- Of or pertaining to ancient Scandinavia, or to the language spoken by its inhabitants. [Dan. Norsk, fr. nord north. See North.]
- kettle n.
- A metallic vessel, with a wide mouth, often without a cover, used for heating and boiling water or other liguids. Kettle pins, ninepins; skittles. Shelton. [OE. ketel; cf. AS. cetel, cetil, cytel; akin to D. kjedel, G. kessel, OHG. chezzil, Icel. ketill, SW. kittel, Dan. kjedel, Goth. katils; all perh. fr. L. catill]
- dreary a.
- Sorrowful; distressful. [OE. dreori, dreri, AS. dreórig, sad; akin to G. traurig, and prob. to AS. dreósan to fall, Goth. driusan. Cf. Dross, Drear, Drizzle, Drowse.]
- disconsolate n.
- Disconsolateness. Barrow.
- comfortless a.
- Without comfort or comforts; in want or distress; cheerless.
- environ v. t.
- To surround; to encompass; to encircle; to hem in; to be round about; to involve or envelop. [F. environner, fr. environ about, thereabout; pref. en- (L. in) + OF. viron circle, circuit, fr. OF. & F. virer to turn, LL. virare to turn up and down, topsy-t]
- crawl v. i.
- To move slowly by drawing the body along the ground, as a worm; to move slowly on hands and kness; to creep. [Dan. kravle, or Icel. krafla, to paw, scrabble with the hands; akin to Sw. kr to crawl; cf. LG. krabbeln, D. krabbelen to scratch.]
- brink n.
- The edge, margin, or border of a steep place, as of a precipice; a bank or edge, as of a river or pit; a verge; a border; as, the brink of a chasm. Also Fig. [Dan. brink edge, verge; akin to Sw. brink declivity, hill, Icel. brekka; cf. LG. brink a grassy hill, W. bryn hill, bryncyn hillock.]
- methinks v.
- It seems to me; I think. See Me. [AS. þyncan to seem, me þynceedh, me þuhte, OE. me thinketh, me thoughte; akin to G. dünken to seem, denken to think, and E. think. See Me, and Think.]
- eyesight n.
- Sight of the eye; the sense of seeing; view; observation.
- gladly adv.
- Preferably; by choice. [From Glad, a.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Written in Germany, on One of the Coldest Days of the Century is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth — Volume 2 (of 8), Project Gutenberg ebook #12145; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Wordsworth, Written in Germany, on One of the Coldest Days of the Century, in The Poetical Works, Volume II (1798–1807), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12145, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wordsworth-vol2/written-in-germany-on-one-of-the-coldest-days-of-the-century.html, id L17293.
Form and metre
Written in Germany, on One of the Coldest Days of the Century is 35 lines in 6 stanzas. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 31% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABAAB-CDDC norseA · kettleB · horseA · forceA · metalB · perhaps · groveC · heatD · retreatD · stoveC
- 2 -ABBA domains · environA · crawlB · wallB · ironA
- 3 -ABBA bemazed · triedA · forthB · northB · guideA
- 4 -ABBA thigh · lostA · thawsB · gauzeB · frostA
- 5 -ABBA i · loveA · gloomB · roomB · aboveA
- 6 -ABBA thing · sustainA · crowdsB · cloudsB · againA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A plague on your languages, German and Norse! | 10 | ····/˘/˘·· |
| Let me have the song of the kettle; | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| And the tongs and the poker, instead of that horse | 12 | ·····/˘˘/··· |
| That gallops away with such fury and force | 11 | ·/˘˘/··/˘·· |
| On this dreary dull plate of black metal. | 10 | ··/˘····/˘ |
| See that Fly, --a disconsolate creature! perhaps | 12 | ····˘/˘˘/˘˘/ |
| A child of the field or the grove; | 8 | ········ |
| And, sorrow for him! the dull treacherous heat | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Has seduced the poor fool from his winter retreat, | 12 | ·˘/·····/˘˘/ |
| And he creeps to the edge of my stove. | 9 | ········· |
| Alas! how he fumbles about the domains | 11 | ˘/··/˘···˘/ |
| Which this comfortless oven environ! | 10 | ··/˘˘/˘˘/˘ |
| He cannot find out in what track he must crawl, | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Now back to the tiles, then in search of the wall, | 11 | ··········· |
| And now on the brink of the iron. | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Stock-still there he stands like a traveller bemazed: | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| The best of his skill he has tried; | 8 | ········ |
| His feelers, methinks, I can see him put forth | 11 | ·/˘˘/······ |
| To the east and the west, to the south and the north | 12 | ············ |
| But he finds neither guide-post nor guide. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| His spindles sink under him, foot, leg, and thigh! | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| His eyesight and hearing are lost; | 8 | ·/··/˘·· |
| Between life and death his blood freezes and thaws; | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| And his two pretty pinions of blue dusky gauze | 12 | ···/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Are glued to his sides by the frost. | 8 | ········ |
| No brother, no mate has he near him--while I | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Can draw warmth from the cheek of my Love; | 9 | ········· |
| As blest and as glad, in this desolate gloom, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| As if green summer grass were the floor of my room, | 12 | ···/˘······· |
| And woodbines were hanging above. | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Yet, God is my witness, thou small helpless Thing! | 11 | ····/˘··/˘· |
| Thy life I would gladly sustain | 8 | ····/˘˘/ |
| Till summer come up from the south, and with crowds | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Of thy brethren a march thou should'st sound through the clouds. | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| And back to the forests again! | 8 | ····/˘˘/ |
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.