last 3 anthology posts
10. “Blow, blow thou winter wind” by William Shakespeare
This poem is written into two stanzas and there are ten lines in each stanza. The poem also has a rhyme scheme which follows as a a b c c b d d d d. This poem has some repitition in it like “Heigh ho! sing heigh-ho, unto the green holly/ Most friendships is feighning, most loving mere folly/ Then heigh ho, the holly!/ This life is most jolly” is repeated in both of the two stanzas. These lines indicate that the Shakespeare likes the winter and encourages the winter and its attributes. You can also tell in the title that the author likes it. The first stanza tells the winter to blow and says that the winter isnt that bad when he says “Thou art not so unkind” which is also a double negative which makes it positive. The second stanza also encourages the winter to blow and says that it is not bad when he says “Thy sting is not so sharp”. The couple of lines that repeat in both the stanzas makes the poem positive with all the exclamation points and words like “holly” “jolly” and “frienships and “loving”. You can tell that this poem was written in the time of Shakespeare because he uses old english words that we do not use in our vocabulary today like “thou” “art” “dost” and “thy”. I really like this poem because instead of complaining about winter, this poem and author makes winter sound exciting and joyful. I think that this poem follows a stucture of two stressed syllables followed by one unstressed syllables and so forth.
11. “Now Winter Nights Enlarge” by Thomas Campion
This poem has a very interesting structure. There are two stanzas with twelve lines in each of them. The first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth and eleventh lines are were they should normally be. Although the second, fourth, sixth, eigth, tenth and twelveth lines are in the middle of the poem–meaning they start in the middle of where the first etc. lines are. It is really strange looking. There is a rhyme scheme: a b a b c d c d e f e f g h g h i j i j k l k l. Some of the rhymes are slant rhymes like “love” and “remove”. I think that this poem follows a stucture of a unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable and so forth. This poem has a lot of imagery that reminds me personally of winter season and more specifically christmas: “airy towers”, “cups o’erflow with wine” “yellow waxen lights”. Although I like this poem, I do not understand the signifigance or what the author is saying when he says “Now Winter Nights Enlarge”. I guess it just means that winter is getting colder? You can tell that this poem wasnt written around our time period because the author uses words like “doth” and “hath”. I like this poem a lot but I am unsure to what the poet is trying to tell the reader when he wrote this poem. I dont think I am taking away the full meaning.
12. “January” by William Carlos Williams
This poem, well, I think that it is written in one stanza with eleven lines. Although the fourth and ninth lines are intended so much that it looks like it separates the line into different stanzas. I like this poem because it describes the winter wind like music. In the first couple of lines he mentions that he notices the wind. He tells it to “Play Louder”. I think that he is saying in the next couple of lines that the wind can not convince him to go outside. Also it sounds like he wants to stay inside writing poetry because he says he is “bound to his sentences”. The last stanza just concludes again how the wind is musical. I like the title of the poem because it can help you understand more that the wind outside is cold wind because January is during the winter season. I think that this poem doesnt have a specific meter and you could stress or unstress any syllable you want and it would still sound okay. The poem has no specific rhyme scheme and the poem itself kind of resembles a prosaic piece of writing. I like this poem but i dont think it is my favorite in the anthology. I like it though because it is unique and different than any other poem in the anthology.
