Analysis of The Frost Spirit



He comes, - he comes, - the Frost Spirit comes!
You may trace his footsteps now
On the naked woods and the blasted fields
And the brown hill's withered brow.
He has smitten the leaves of the gray old trees
Where their pleasant green came forth,
And the winds, which follow wherever he goes,
Have shaken them down to earth.

He comes, - he comes, - the Frost Spirit comes!
From the frozen Labrador,
From the icy bridge of the northern seas,
Which the white bear wanders o'er,
Where the fisherman's sail is stiff with ice,
And the luckless forms below
In the sunless cold of the lingering night
Into marble statues grow!

He comes, - he comes, - the Frost Spirit comes!
On the rushing Northern blast,
And the dark Norwegian pines have bowed
As his fearful breath went past.
With an unscorched wing he has hurried on,
Where the fires of Hecla glow
On the darkly beautiful sky above
And the ancient ice below.

He comes, - he comes, - the Frost Spirit comes!
And the quiet lake shall feel
The torpid touch of his glazing breath,
And ring to the skater's heel;
And the streams which danced on the broken rocks,
Or sang to the leaning grass,
Shall bow again to their winter chain,
And in mournful silence pass.

He comes, - he comes, - the Frost Spirit comes!
Let us meet him as we may,
And turn with the light of the parlor-fire
His evil power away;
And gather closer the circle 'round,
When the firelight dances high,
And laugh at the shriek of the baffled Fiend
As his sounding wing goes by!


Scheme Abxbcxxx Axcdxexe Afxfxexe Agxgxhxh Aidixjxj
Poetic Form
Metre 111101101 111111 1010100101 0011101 11100110111 1110111 00111001011 1101111 111101101 101010 1010110101 10111010 1010011111 0010101 0011101001 011011 111101101 1010101 00110111 1110111 111111101 10101101 1010100101 0010101 111101101 0010111 010111101 011011 0011110101 1110101 110111101 0010101 111101101 1111111 01101101010 1101001 010100101 101101 0110110101 1110111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,492
Words 279
Sentences 13
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 40
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 230
Words per stanza (avg) 55
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:24 min read
133

John Greenleaf Whittier

John Greenleaf Whittier was an influential American Quaker poet and ardent advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. more…

All John Greenleaf Whittier poems | John Greenleaf Whittier Books

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