When icicles hang by the wall
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail
And Tom bears logs into the hall
And milk comes frozen home in pail,
When blood is nipp'd and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring owl, Tu-whit;
Tu-who, a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.
When all aloud the wind doth blow
And coughing drowns the parson's saw
And birds sit brooding in the snow
And Marian's nose looks red and raw,
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,
Then nightly sings the staring owl, Tu-whit;
Tu-who, a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot
شـــرح القــصـيــدة
The speaker:-
There is only one speaker in the poem who seems to be the poet himself.
Paraphrasing :-
First Stanza:-
The poet gives to us homely details of the cold weather in winter.
He said that water is freezing while it is dropping from the wall, so it is extremely cold.
And people can't stop working because the coldness of winter and they have to go out and work.
Dick the shepherd has nothing to warm him just his breath because he is poor man so he is blowing his fingertips to warm him.
And Tom is working hard to survive in this cold winter. He cuts logs and brings them home to fuel the fire to get their home little warmer.
Also in this cold weather while they were getting the milk from the farm to the house . it froze in the bucket before it arrives to the home , So they can't drink it until its defrosted .
Second Stanza :-
Harsh winter and extreme cold make the blood frozen too. And the people couldn't move around easily because of this cold and because of the street are full of mud.
At the night while Joan a greasy, dirty looking women was keeling a pot to prepare some hot food in this coldness.
The staring owl was singing in scary tune. And when the poet said "merry note" it is ironic because people always believe that the owl tone is scary and gives pessimistic feeling of death.
Third Stanza:-
When the wind blew with noise, it made the weather colder. And in the church while the priest was giving an important religious speech people usually listen and the room is quiet but actually no one was hearing him from people's coughing because they were sick and that drowned his voice. Also the birds were sad and not moving in the snow as if they were nesting, And Marian has got a cold from this horrible winter .Therefore her nose is red and soft.
Forth Stanza:-
In winter people usually prepare warmed food .So they prepared some roasted and hot apples At night the owl was singing again while Joan was keeling hot food which makes life bearable .The repetition of the sound that the owl makes adds a humorous and scary tone .Although the owl is a symbol of bad luck but Shakespeare trying to use it to add cheerful note and atmosphere to the poem.
The main idea:-
The unpleasant and cold season winter and the cold feeling the speaker feels.
Imagery:-
[When icicles hang by the wall]
[And milk comes frozen home in pail]
[And birds sit brooding in the snow]
[And Marian's nose looks red and raw]
[While greasy Joan doth keel the pot]
Visual image
[When blood is nipped, and ways be foul]
[And Dick the shepherd blows his nail]
There is imagery sense of feeling
[When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl]
Auditory imagery
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