Edwin Morgan Winter

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Edwin Morgan Poems

Winter

> Denial

"Dearest blue's not there, though poets would find it"

Morgan

seems to be denying that he is a poet

this shows how much this bleak scene

seems to have depressed him

> Repetition of "go/goes"

"the year goes"

Shows

the negativity in the poem

This

as the opening line brings us down straight away

> Repetition of "fade(s)"

"the voices fade"

The

boys-the only human life in the poem- are leaving

A

reminder that summer has left, makes us feel depressed

> Repetition of "decay(s)"

"the woods decay"

The

trees are dying in the cold

Again,

everything that reminds us of summer (voices outside, trees etc) are leaving

this makes us feel depressed

> Alliteration of 'g' sounds

"The

swan on Bingham’s pond, a ghost, comes and goes. It goes"

The

alliteration draws our attention to the swan

the

swan is not quite alive because of the depressing, cold, dark season

> Alliteration of 'b' sounds

"It

holds, bears gulls that stand around surprised blinking in the heavy light,

bears boys when skates take over"

B

is a heavy, thudding, dead sound

The

alliteration of this sound draws our attention to the boys who are not ‘alive’

because the skates seem to be controlling them

> Pathetic fallacy

"many a summer dies" (whole poem)

The

weather is changing and so is Morgan’s mood

The happiness of summer is gone

and he is left with the cold winter.

‘many’ suggests we have lost more than we

ever actually had

winter=depression/sadness

> Sense of sound

"Cut

by evening cries, by warring air"

A

painful sound ties in with the mood of the poem

Winter

sounds are painful and violent

> 1st person

"I

find one stark scene"

Half

way through the poem is the first time the author directly refers to himself

It

shows that it is hard to find life in winter with everything else in the poem

leaving, fading or dying

> Present tense

"The year goes"

The

poem is unfolding in front of our eyes but we cannot change or influence it and

we are not involved

Present

tense also makes it feel unending

> Metaphor

"The

swan on Bingham’s pond, a ghost, comes and goes"

This

says the swan is not doing anything other than swimming up and down the pond

which makes it like a ghost-it’s not fully there

Ties in with the poem’s theme

of death and the never ending winter

> Metaphor

"Many

a summer dies"

The

happiness of summer is gone and he is left with the cold winter.

‘many’

suggests we have lost more than we ever actually had

> Oxymoron

"Blinking

in the heavy light"

Words

whose ideas clash

A description of the light in winter, when dark clouds hang

over the hills, grabs our attention.

> Contradiction

"The

swan white ice glints only crystal beyond white"

Morgan

creates a nice colour metaphor which makes the ice seem pretty but pulls back

from it to say it is ‘beyond white’

> Negative verbs

"breaks"

"fades" "decays"

Morgan

finds nothing positive about winter and wants us to feel the same so uses

negative verbs to put us down

> Summing up

"At

last, the lamps go too"

Morgan

is beginning to end the poem

He says that even artificial light is going

> Nihilism

"Pane

of ice that sees nothing and nothing sees"

All

the living things have been taken out of the poem so there is nothing left to

notice the ice

> Connotations

"dearest"

The

loved colour which poets look for in winter and use to describe the season

> Connotations

"stark"

Bleak

baron

desolate

cold

hard

unpleasant

> Connotations

"cut"

Painful sound

violence

> Connotations

"cries"

Cries

of the boys voices

usually happy children’s playing voices in summer but they

are painful to Morgan in winter

> Connotations

"warring"

Conflict and violence in the winter air

> Connotations

"monstrous"

The fog is so awful, thick and unstoppable

> Connotations

" the west"

Wild

west

unknown

unexplored

> Connotations

"dual- carriageway"

Unpoetic

left the world of nature

boring

built for speed

cuts through countryside

> Connotations

"dead"

Inanimate

can’t engage with it

gone

> Connotations

"pane"

window

glass

unatural

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