Analysis of A Winter Daybreak

Anne Glenny Wilson 1848 (Greenvale, Victoria) – 1930 (Lethenty)



From the dark gorge, where burns the morning star,
I hear the glacier river rattling on
And sweeping o'er his ice-ploughed shingle-bar,
While wood owls shout in sombre unison,
And fluttering southern dancers glide and go;
And black swan's airy trumpets wildly, sweetly blow.

The cock crows in the windy winter morn,
Then must I rise and fling the curtain by.
All dark! But for a strip of fiery sky
Behind the ragged mountains, peaked and torn.
One planet glitters in the icy cold,
Poised like a hawk above the frozen peaks,
And now again the wild nor'-wester speaks,
And bends the cypress, shuddering, to his fold,
While every timber, every casement creaks.
But still the skylarks sing aloud and bold;
The wooded hills arise; the white cascade
Shakes with wild laughter all the silent shadowy glade.

Now from the shuttered east a silvery bar
Shines through the mist, and shows the mild daystar.
The storm-wrapped peaks start out and fade again,
And rosy vapours skirt the pastoral plain;
The garden paths with hoary rime are wet;
And sweetly breathes the winter violet;
The jonquil half unfolds her ivory cup,
With clouds of gold-eyed daisies waking up.

Pleasant it is to turn and see the fire
Dance on the hearth, as he would never tire;
The home-baked loaf, the Indian bean's perfume,
Fill with their homely cheer the panelled room.
Come, crazy storm! And thou, wild glittering hail,
Rave o'er the roof and wave your icy veil;
Shout in our ears and take your madcap way!
I laugh at storms! for Roderick comes to-day.


Scheme AXAXBB CDDCEFFEFEGG AAXXXXHH IIJJKKLL
Poetic Form
Metre 1011110101 1101010101 01010111101 111101100 01001010101 011101010101 0110010101 1111010101 11110111001 0101010101 1101000101 1101010101 0101011101 01010100111 11001010011 110110101 0101010101 1111010101001 11010101001 110101011 0111110101 0101101001 0101110111 0101010100 0110101001 1111110101 10111101010 11011111010 01110100101 111101011 11010111001 11001011101 1010101111 1111110111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,493
Words 266
Sentences 14
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 6, 12, 8, 8
Lines Amount 34
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 300
Words per stanza (avg) 66
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 03, 2023

1:21 min read
73

Anne Glenny Wilson

Anne Wilson, Lady Wilson (née Adams) was an Australian poet and novelist. Most of her work was published as Mrs James Glenny Wilson or the pseudonym Austral. Adams was born in 1848 at Greenvale, Victoria. Her mother, Jane Anderson, was Scottish, and her father, the farmer Robert Adams, was Irish. She was known as Annie, and she received her education at Geelong High School and at a private institution in St Kilda, Victoria. After her schooling, she travelled through Europe with her mother. On 21 January 1874, she married James Wilson at St Enochs station near Skipton, Victoria. Her husband had bought 6,210 acres (2,510 ha) of land in the Rangitikei District of New Zealand in 1873, and by the end of 1874, the Wilsons were living there. They lived in their homestead, which they called Lethenty, for the rest of their lives, but she always identified with Australia throughout her life. James Wilson, a well-known public man, was knighted in 1915. Annie Wilson's first book of poems, Themes and Variations, came out in London in 1889 and was followed by a novel, Alice Lauder, a Sketch, in 1893. Another novel, Two Summers published by Harper in 1900, was later included in Macmillan's colonial library. In 1901 A Book of Verses was published (new and slightly enlarged edition, 1917), a collection of her poems from English, American and Australian magazines. Her husband died in 1929 leaving her with two sons and two daughters. Lady Wilson died at Lethenty and is buried in the Clifton Cemetery at Bulls. Some of her poems are included in several Australian and New Zealand anthologies.  more…

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