Blow, blow thou winter winds

Blow, blow, thou winter wind

Think about all the people in your life – which ones could make you the most upset and why?


Blow, blow, thou winter wind,Thou art not so unkind

As a man’s ingratitude;Thy tooth is not so keen,Because thou art not seen,

Although thy breath be rude.Heigh-ho, sing heigh-ho, unto the green holly;Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.

Then heigh-ho, the holly,This life is most jolly!

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,That dost not bite so nigh

As benefits forgot:Though thou the waters warp,Thy sting is not so sharp

As friend remembered not.Heigh-ho, sing heigh-ho, unto the green holly;Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.


William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Context

Shakespeare(1564-1616)

So, this is another poem taken from a play and it may help your understanding to havea brief synopsis of As You Like It.

Duke Frederick has pushed his older brother, Duke Senior, aside to take charge of theirhome land; however, both their daughters (Celia – daughter of Frederick; Rosalind –daughter of Senior) continue to live at court with Frederick as they are close friends.The girls quickly manage to get themselves banished and head to the woods to be withDuke Senior. Orlando, a noble from the court, has fallen in love with Rosalind, but isforced to flee by his brother’s, Oliver’s, taunting.

Clearly (this is Shakespeare after all) the girls end up cross dressing and examiningfirst Orlando and then Oliver who eventually become their suitors. Eventually they allget married and live happily after and even the nasty usurper, Frederick, has a changeof heart and restores Duke Senior to his rightful place.

One of the key themes of the play is injustice done to individuals by their family –Duke Senior is betrayed by his younger brother and Orlando is bullied by his olderbrother. In the play it all ends well, but the song/poem reflects this theme of the harmand misery those closest to us can inflict.


Repetition suggests frustration – the

equivalent of ‘get on with it’. Blow, blow, thou winter wind,

Thou art not so unkindAs a man’s ingratitude;

Thy tooth is not so keen,Because thou art not seen,

Although thy breath be rude.

‘Ingratitude’ is an interesting choice of

adjective. It suggests that this

person who betrayed him should

have really been thankful toward our

poetic voice.

Harsh natural imagery that would’ve been familiar to everyone

used to highlight exactly how hurt he has been by

being betrayed by a friend. Read ‘not so

unkind’ as saying the wind is not as bad as...

(simile)

‘Winter wind’ alliterative use of harsh/stressed consonance

– biting and bitter weather.

Referring to the frosty bite of ‘winter wind’. ‘Keen’ in this context

means sharp. However, this bite is still

described as being intolerable.

Therefore, he is more hurt by the man as he visible as he hurts our

poetic voice.

The poem addresses the wind, personifying it in order to make thecomparison between it and humans completely clear.

Now if you’ve ever lived in a country with proper winters (i.e. notUganda) you’ll know that the wind can be extremely bitter andbitingly cold, but this poem immediately claims that this is nothingnext to the attitude of men. ‘Ingratitude’ suggests that the speakerhas been treated unfairly by someone who should owe him thanks,if you link this to the context there are obvious comparisons withinthe play. The ‘tooth’ not being as ‘keen’ means that it is not as sharp,so it doesn’t inflict as much pain as that caused by betrayal from afriend. However, the reason the wind is not seen as hurtful or cruelis because it is ‘not seen’, which suggests that the speaker feels thatwhoever has betrayed or let him down is still present in his life andis lauding his actions over our speaker.

‘Heigh-ho’ is meant as a way of saying ‘oh well, let’s get on with it’. It is as if the poetic voice is moving

on despite the pain he has been caused.

Heigh-ho, sing heigh-ho, unto the green holly;Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.


Context: Duke Senior has been usurped by Duke

Frederick and goes to set up camp in

the woods.

Is it? Poetic voice doesn’t seem convinced in the rest of the

poem and even in this chorus. Pretending to get over the pain,

but really stuck on it.

Contradicts attitude of ‘heigh-ho’ by showing deeply cynical attitude towards relationships –

‘friendship is feigning’ = is built on lies; ‘loving mere

folly’ = madness/stupidity.

The second half of the stanza is meant to show that the speakeris not bitter about what has happened as he is basically saying‘Oh well, let’s get on with it and not linger on our anger’. ‘Heigh-ho’ might be something the seven dwarves would say, but here itmeans ‘Oh well’ and a reference to the fact he is having toovercome a challenge or problem, but is facing it positively – itcan mean boredom or fatigue, which would mean he is tired ofdwelling on what has happened. The fact it is repeated threetime in the chorus could mean that the speaker is trying toconvince himself to be optimistic and to get on with things, but isfinding it hard to just move on without resentment.

However, you have to question whether that is the case based onthe opening of the stanza. He also dismisses friendship as‘feigning’ (lie) and love as ‘folly’ (stupidity), which suggests thathe feels let down by those closest to him and recognises that hisprevious emotions or feelings towards whoever is the focus ofthis poem have evaporated. The reference to ‘green holly’ linksus directly to Duke Senior’s plight as he has to retreat to thewoods to hold his court.

Repetition suggests frustration – the

equivalent of ‘get on with it’. Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,

That dost not bite so nighAs benefits forgot:

Though thou the waters warp,Thy sting is not so sharp

As friend remembered not..

Freezing weather ‘warps’ water into

ice. Notice again the harsh consonance. Simile to show this is not as painful or

unexpected (connotations of

‘sting’ and ‘sharp’) as...

Another simile – this time the bitter sky of

winter is not as bad as ‘benefits forgot’. I take this to mean privileges that the poetic voice bestowed upon the

subject of the poem. So, favours not returned.

Again, use of harsh/stressed consonance – ‘bitter’ and

‘bite’ reflects poetic voice’s anger.

Harsh weather conditions again used to elevate the pain inflicted by being betrayed or unfairly treated by someone you have treated as a

friend.

The second stanza follows the same pattern as the first; wemove from the winter wind to its frost and ice, which again isbitingly cold and something to avoid with the aid of a snugjacket at all times. However, it is nothing in comparison to a‘friend remembered not’ by someone who has forgotten allyou’ve done for him (‘benefits forgot’). Then we return to thechorus once more, flying in the face of what’s been said in thefirst half of the stanza.

Language and techniques

Okay, so I’ve briefly alluded to pathetic fallacy in the overview, but let’s explore that in a bit more detail. Human relationships are being referred to here in comparison with the natural harshness and bitterness of the winter. The freezing cold, the bite of the wind and nip of the ice and frost are amongst nature’s most deadly or uncomfortable conditions. Winter is often used as a link to ideas of death or lack of emotions, which is appropriate for the focus of this poem.

This poem takes for granted that we understand the vicious nature of this season and uses these most terrible conditions to provide a suitable comparison for the pain he feels has been inflicted upon him by a close friend. We know the weather is ‘unkind’, has ‘bite’ and there is a ‘sharp’ ‘sting’ to winter conditions, but in the poem these are only mentioned comparatively with the winter coming out kinder than man.

I also mentioned personification earlier; this poem addresses the conditions with ‘thou’ and it is almost as if the speaker is seeking comfort in this conversation as he is able to express his dissatisfaction. In the first stanza there is a focus on the mouth of the wind as it talks about its ‘tooth is not so keen’ and ‘breath be rude’. This is a familiar piece of personification as people often talk about the biting cold, but the focus could indicate that the person who has betrayed him has done so with his words.

Another thing I might mention is the multi-sensory imagery in the poem: we see the sharp teeth of the offender, but also smell his ‘rude’ breath; we also feel the ‘bite’ and the sharp ‘sting’ that our speaker has felt through being let down by his friend. This is significant because it shows us that the pain inflicted by the inconstancy of love is all encompassing.

Finally, let’s deal with the chorus. You can read the chorus in two ways: one, as an optimistic approach to hardship where our speaker is moving on from it; or alternatively it is bitterly satirical and sarcastic and actually he has no intention of being ‘jolly’. Both interpretations make sense as in the play Duke Senior actually seems to make the most of being usurped and doesn’t linger in misery or bitterness, but in the poem/song we have a complete contrast in what is being said in the verse and the chorus – at first bitter and resentful and then completely fine with whatever has happened.

The positivity of the language, the punctuation and the expression ‘heigh-ho’ contrasts dramatically with the implication of the words ‘feigning’ and ‘folly’ to describe friendship and love. These words suggests he feels like he has been an idiot or a fool to trust whoever this poem is address to. These words again suggest a bitterness to me that is at odds with the way the chorus is structured. The last line could be seen as being oxymoronic in relation to what we have learnt in the rest of the poem: how on earth can life be ‘most jolly’ when you feel let down by those closest to you?











Structure

One thing you could discuss is thedifference in pace and organisationbetween the verses and the chorus. Noticethe lines change length dramatically at thebeginning of the chorus and we movefrom a standard 6 syllables a line to 10-11.Initially we have short bitter statementsabout how he feels mistreated, but thechorus becomes more sing-songy as hetries to look on the bright side.











Another difference is the use ofalliteration. In stanza one we have therepetition of the stressed ‘b’, ‘w’ and evenharsh ‘t’ sounds that make us almost spitout the words, mirroring the poetic voice’sanger/bitterness. Compare this to thechorus which is also alliterative, but withmuch gentler ‘h’, ‘s’, ‘f ’ and ‘l’ sounds.When we read the chorus it feels like a‘jolly’ song, whereas when we read theverse it feels like we are cursing.Additionally, this jolliness is assisted bythe repetitive rhyme and simplicity ofrhyming words in the chorus as opposedto AABCCB in the verse. You could alsopoint out the enthusiasm with which theverse is delivered as it is punctuated withan exclamation mark.

The difference continues in the secondstanza, but this time the verse uses the ‘b’,‘w’ and harsh ‘s’ sounds in the words‘sting’ and ‘sharp’ for the same reasons.











Tone

To a certain extent I’m going to have toleave this to you. It depends how youinterpret it: is he bitter and then deeplysarcastic or is this someone who iscarrying resentment, but trying to look atthings positively?

Themes

As above, this is about the power ofhuman relationships and the bitterness ofbetrayal. We’ve also obviously got thetheme of nature being used to convey amessage about human emotions and theimpact of sour relations/friendship.

Blow, blow thou winter winds

Education

Transcript of Blow, blow thou winter winds