Analysis of A Winter Night
Robert Burns 1759 (Alloway) – 1796 (Dumfries)
When biting Boreas, fell and doure,
Sharp shivers thro' the leafless bow'r;
When Phoebus gies a short-liv'd glow'r,
Far south the lift,
Dim-dark'ning thro' the flaky show'r,
Or whirling drift:
Ae night the storm the steeples rocked,
Poor Labour sweet in sleep was locked,
While burns, wi' snawy wreeths upchoked,
Wild-eddying swirl,
Or thro' the mining outlet bocked,
Down headlong hurl.
List'ning, the doors an' winnocks rattle,
I thought me on the ourie cattle,
Or silly sheep, wha bide this brattle
O' winter war,
And thro' the drift, deep-lairing, sprattle,
Beneath a scar.
Ilk happing bird, wee, helpless thing!
That, in the merry months o' spring,
Delighted me to hear thee sing,
What comes o' thee?
Whare wilt thou cow'r thy chittering wing
An' close thy e'e?
Ev'n you on murd'ring errands toil'd,
Lone from your savage homes exil'd,
The blood-stain'd roost, and sheep-cote spoil'd
My heart forgets,
While pityless the tempest wild
Sore on you beats.
Scheme | AAABAB CCBDBD EEEADA FFFGFG HIHXIX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Burns stanza (53%) Tetractys (33%) Etheree (20%) |
Metre | 1101101 110101011 110101111 1101 111101011 1101 11010101 1110111 111111 111 1101011 111 11011110 11110110 110111110 1101 0101111 0101 1111101 10010111 01011111 1111 11111111 11111 11111101 1111011 01110111 1101 110101 1111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,030 |
Words | 159 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 147 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 31 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 51 sec read
- 955 Views
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"A Winter Night" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/30456/a-winter-night>.
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