Image and Imagery. An image is language that creates a concrete representation of an object or an experience. An image is also the vivid mental picture created in the reader’s mind by that language. Taken together, the images in a poem or passage are called its imagery. As you read “Winter,” make note of the sensory details that Shakespeare uses to capture the sights, sounds, feelings, tastes, and smells of winter. On your own piece of paper, create a sensory detail chart like the one to the right, and fill in the sensory details that you find. Do not worry if the details you find seem to apply more to some senses than others.
Rhyme. Rhyme is the repetition of sounds at the ends of words. Some words rhyme exactly, like cat and hat, while other words form near rhyme like cat and hot. The pronunciation of English in Shakespeare’s time and place was different from our own, so many of the words that would have been exact rhymes in Shakespeare’s day are now near rhymes. As you read, try to notice both exact and near rhyme. If you are having trouble identifying rhyme in “Winter,” read the poem to yourself out loud.
Refrain. A refrain is one or more lines repeated in a poem or song. As you read, try to identify the refrain in “Winter.”
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- “Winter,” the poem you are about to read, is actually a song from William Shakespeare’s play Love’s Labor’s Lost. Like many people who lived in his day, Shakespeare was fond of songs and music, both the courtly music that entertained the nobles and the simple songs of the English peasants. Shakespeare often filled his plays, especially the comedies, with songs and music related to what was going on in the play. The tradition of plays filled with song continues in today’s musicals, like Les Misérables and Rent, which often are entirely composed of song and music rather than dialogue.
- Like many writers both before and after him, Shakespeare borrowed many of his ideas and plots from other writers. Shakespeare, however, breathed new life and originality into well-known plots and ideas. Many writers who lived after Shakespeare have written their own works based on Shakespearean writing. The related reading for this selection, “Winter Fairyland in Vermont,” is an example of a modern writer’s attempt to imitate Shakespeare’s “Winter.”
What do you like best about winter? What do you dislike about winter?
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