WINTER by Edwin Morgan -Analysis-

Annotations:

• The year goes, the woods decay, and after, many a summer dies. The swan on Bingham's pond, a ghost, comes and goes. It goes, and ice appears, it holds, bears gulls that stand around surprised, blinking in the heavy light, bears boys when skates take over swan-tracks gone. after many summer dyes, the swan-white ice Glints only crystal beyond white. Even dearest blue's not there, though poets would find it. I find one stark scene  cut by evening cries, by warring air. The muffled hiss of blades escapes into breath, hangs with it a moment, fades off. Fades off, goes, the scene, the voices fade, the line of trees, the woods that fall, decay and break, the dark comes down, the shouts run off into it and disappear. At last the lamps go too, when fog drives monstrous down the duel carriageway out to the west, and even in my room and on this paper I do not know about that grey dead pane of ice that sees nothing and that nothing sees.

1. Denial

   Annotations:

   • "Even dearest blue's not there, though poets would find it"
   1. Morgan seems to be denying that he is a poet
      1. This shows how much the bleak scene seems to have depressed him
2. Summing Up

   Annotations:

   • "At last, the lamps go too"
   1. we know Morgan is beginning to end the poem as he uses "at last"
   2. He is saying that now, everything has gone, even the artificial and man-made things like the lamps are stolen by winter
      1. this finally drains the poem of all hope and positivety
3. Nihilism

   Annotations:

   • "The pane of ice that sees nothing and that nothing sees."
   • NIHILISM: -to do with nothing/ nothingness
   1. All the living things have been taken out of the poem so there is nothing left to see the ice
      1. as the poet has removed the swan, the boys, the woods, and now himself
4. Connotations
   1. "Dearest blue"
      1. most valued and precious but only mentioned to tell us it is gone
   2. "Stark"
      1. bleak
      2. baron
      3. desolate
      4. cold
      5. hard
      6. unpleasant
   3. "Cut"
      1. painful sound
      2. violence
   4. "cries"
      1. Cries of the boys voices
      2. usually happy children playing voices in summer
         1. But they are painful cries to Morgan in winter
   5. "Warring"
      1. Conflict and violence in the winter air
   6. "Monstrous"
      1. the fog like winter is horrible, dangerous and unstoppable like a monster
   7. "The West"
      1. the wild west
         1. unkown
            1. unexplored
   8. "Dual-carriageway"
      1. unpoetic
      2. left the world of nature /taken away nature
      3. boring
      4. built for speed
      5. cuts through the countryside
   9. "Dead"
      1. inanimate
      2. unable to engage with it
      3. gone
   10. "Pane"
       1. window
          1. is see-through /is nothing
       2. glass
          1. fragile
       3. unatural
5. Repitition
   1. "Goes/ Go"

      Annotations:

      • "The year goes,"
      1. this is included in the opening line which brings the poem down strait away
      2. emphasises how many things leave and die as winter begins and how we are at a loss
   2. "Fade/s"

      Annotations:

      • "the voices fade"
      1. shows the process that the world and life is going through in winter as throughout this poem things keep on leaving
      2. the boys-the only human life in the poem- are leaving
         1. a reminder that summer has left and makes us feel depressed
   3. "Decays"

      Annotations:

      • "the woods decay"
      1. again, everything that reminds us of summer (children's voices, trees) are leaving
         1. this makes us feel depressed
   4. "Nothing"
      1. emphasises just how empty and lifeless the world has become
6. negative verbs

   Annotations:

   • "fades" "goes" "dies"
   1. creates a sense of things rapidly getting worse than it was before
      1. also keeps the tone of the poem down
7. Alliteration of...
   1. 'B' sounds

      Annotations:

      • "It holds, bears gulls that stand around suprised blinking in the heavy light, bears boys when skates take over." 
      1. 'B' is a heavy, dead, thudding sound
         1. The alliteration of this sound draws our attention to the boys who are not 'alive' as the skates seem to be controlling them
            1. draws attention to notice how disturbing the point is
   2. 'G' sounds

      Annotations:

      • "The swan on Binghams pond, a ghost, comes and goes. It goes."
      1. alliteration draws our attention to the swan
         1. The swan seems to be not quite alive because of the depressing, cold, dark season
8. Pathetic fallacy

   Annotations:

   • -The whole poem -winter=depression/ sadness
   • Pathetic fallacy: the weather representing mood
   1. the weather is changing from bad to worse just like morgans mood
9. Sense of sound

   Annotations:

   • "Cut by evening cries, by warring air"
   1. A painful sound ties in with the mood of the poem
   2. winter sounds are painful and violent
10. First person

    Annotations:

    • "I find one stark scene."
    1. Halfway through the poem is when the poet first refers to himself
       1. Shows that it is hard to find life in winter when everything else fading, leaving or dying
       2. little and late use= yet another way that morgan keeps life out of the poem
11. Present tense

    Annotations:

    • "The year goes."
    1. the poem is unfolding infront of our eyes but we have no control to change or influence it as we are not involved
       1. present tense also makes winter feel unending
       2. we are powerless/hopless =depressing
12. Metaphors
    1. "Many a summer dies."
       1. The happiness of summer is gone and he is left with a bleak winter
       2. Also suggests that we're at a loss as we've lost more that we ever had
          1. (since we only had 1 summer to begin with)
    2. "The swan on Binghams pond, a ghost, comes and goes."
       1. This says the swan isnt doing anything other than swimming up and down the pond so even though it is alive it doesnt seem fully there - ghostlike
          1. ties in with poems themes of death and a never-ending winter
    3. "At last the lamps go too"
       1. Light= metaphor for all that is good
13. Oxymoron

    Annotations:

    • "Blinking in the heavy light."
    • Oxymoron: -words whose ideas clash
    1. The words here clash as light cant be wieghed down
       1. However we understand that thia is a description of his environment as gloomy and dark
14. Contradiction

    Annotations:

    • "The swan white ice glints only crystal behond white."
    1. Morgan creates a nice colour metaphor to make the ice seem pretty but pulls back from it to say it is "beyond white