Analysis and Comparison of 'Winter' and 'Into the Cold Winter'
Poetry brings out feelings, emotions and ideas through diverse themes, styles and rhythm. 'The Winter' by William Blake and 'In the bleak midwinter' by Christina Rossetti will be the two poems analysed and compared to observe the similarities and differences that they offer. Further, the winter motif can present various perspectives and meanings depending on the author who writes the poem and the time it is composed.
Differences in the topic of the poems may appear from a different type of writing and symbolism that the authors use. William Blake was an English poet that spent from the late 1700s and early 1800s in England that makes us perceive words from the Old English dialect in the poem like “thine”, “hast”, “o'er”, “lo!” and, 'poor little wrech'. As Elfenbein states, he develops a peculiar dialect that does not need purification as he avoids pure English and takes liberties with the language. Blake is an important figure of the poetry of the Romantic Era and as Beadle and Davies states, he emphasizes the workings of the unconscious mind, on the supernatural and primitive view of the world. In this period, nature is seen as a source of inspiration and the fall of the human being is represented by it, a place of isolation from the imaginary world. He considers the beauty of nature and he uses it as a way to reach the awareness of his place in this world and the creation of it. Further, symbology helps him to communicate his thoughts and ideas. On the other hand, Christina Rossetti was a British woman and a member of the evangelical brunch in the church of England. She wrote about her own life and experiences as long as romance and children related type of poetry as can be seen 'In the bleak Midwinter'. Moreover, as the British Library declares, the Pre-Raphaelite movement that she belonged to made her examine nature and she was expected to produce good, excluding the conventional without focusing on what was told in previous art.
To start with, we find differences in the main topic of both poems. Blake gives us an image of winter as cold, dark, and a time of the year that it is associated with desolation and most importantly, with death. In comparison, Rosetti characterizes a birth through her lines, the childbirth of Christ on a 'bleak midwinter' day and the worship towards him. Thus, we can see the differences in topics, the death of Blake versus the birth of Rossetti although in both compositions winter is harsh and fuels the emotions.
'To Winter' by William Blake is one of his four-season poems which are interconnected as they display different feelings in every time of the year. Blake tries to give the reader the vision of winter as something that brings destruction to the cycle of love created by the other three seasons. Also, it is used as an end of a cycle, where Winter enters in life and conquers it producing the end of it. Blake is a poet that perceives nature and energy, which makes him discuss the harsh winter as angry and strong related to the fear of loss and the feeling of hope. Also, as Chayes states, whereas the other seasons are based on innocence, the fourth denotes experience and terror as long as the arriving of death as well as a change of season that goes with a change of mood. Winter is the last season which is focused on abandonment, lust, sorrow and a negative conclusion to all of them, trying to create an antithesis to summer, where all the passion that the sun brings, vanishes and the tyrant king 'freezes up frail life'. At the end of the song, the winters stay in the Mount Hecla, which avoids how the 'mariner's vein cries' for help and the reader is aware that there won't be bliss until the monster is overcome. Blake portrays Winter as someone who inhabits the caves of Mount Hecla, a northern landscape of groaning rocks and seaside cliffs that Winter himself threatens as he threatens the speaker and passes over the land as a destroyer and rapist. Besides, through the poem we can see how the descriptive statements declare what Winter needs to be told whereas the imperative ones tell him to stop what he is doing. All in all, 'To Winter' describes the culmination of the mother nature with atrocity and dissatisfaction.
Next in order, we will analyze 'In the bleak midwinter' by Christina Rossetti. According to Marsh, Christina associated winter with a frozen feeling and an emotional gloom that creates a sense of pain. We find an evocative carol that portrays a Nativity in a Northern landscape full of snow where mother and child remain in an intimate relationship within the various landscapes. Moreover, as Petersen states, the poem splits into two parts: the reality of Jesus' birth and the 'bleak' world into he came, also Rossetti swaps Palestine for Northern Europe to give us earth 'hard as iron' and 'water like a stone' as she tries to deepen the bleakness with the image of 'snow on snow, snow on snow'. Wotton declares that Rossetti is associated with children's writing and reads that she characterises “In the bleak Midwinter” as the acceptability of womanhood to Christ. Rossetti is making a song where nature seems to have been stripped by warmth and beauty like substantives are stripped from their articles in the lines of the poem; for example: 'frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron'. Regarding the first stanza, Rossetti describes the cold and 'bleak' place where she is ringed as she is touched with the wind that it is 'moaning'. Besides, the earth looks frozen as she compares it with 'iron' or 'stone'. The snow seems unstoppable as it has been falling for hours which creates again, a cold place. In the second stanza, God is portrayed as a force that it is not found between heaven and earth and which will make humans 'flee away when He comes' to Earth 'to reign'. We could see how Rossetti uses the power and the glory of God as themes for the poem and wants to create a vision of God being humble as she writes that 'a stable place' where he was born, was enough for him. The third stanza keeps the humble thought from the second one naming items that he had as 'milk' and a 'mangerful of hay' as he is worshipped 'night and day' by 'cherubim'. The fourth stanza makes us see that God is adored by a lot of people after his birth as the 'Angels and archangels' who get together to contemplate him although his mom remains the most important person, who loved him 'with a kiss' that he appreciates. In the final stanza, she is concerned about what could she give to God to show her affection as she explains that she is 'poor' and she won't be able to bring a 'lamb', just offer 'her heart'. As Palazzo states, Rosseti is allowed to continue writing within the tradition of the church and at the same time be an active being against woman's oppression. She wants the reader to see how God was born in a humble and lonely place as showing her admiration to God.
The tone is different in both poems and with Rossetti, we perceive a changing one. The tone feels hopeless in the first stanza, followed by the sense of greatness with a change to calmness in the second one. The following stanzas present admiration towards the new baby, Jesus. The themes included would be the greatness of God, nature, the happiness of a newborn baby and the love of a mother. On the other hand, the tone in Blake's poem is more serious, sinister and sorrowful. Also, we could talk about a solemn and threatening one as these terms become more prominent as the song goes on. Also, I would say that the themes are nature, death, power, good versus evil. In the second stanza, seems to abandon the language and the tone of the previous one, which becomes personal helplessness before the unexpected power of the figure he has been addressing.
Regarding poetic/literary devices, both Rossetti and Blake share the usage of some devices: personification can be found through Blake's poem: 'shake not thy roofs', 'nor bend thy pillars', 'for he hath rear'd his scepter o'er the world', 'he takes his seat upon the cliffs', 'cries in vain' and 'groaning rocks'. Rossetti also makes use of it in 'Heaven and earth shall flee away' and 'The ox and ass and camel which adore'. Moreover, Blake uses imagery: Lo! now the direful monster, whose skin clings/To his strong bones, strides o'er the groaning rocks:/He withers all in silence, and in his hand/Unclothes the earth, and freezes up frail life as in the first stanza by Rossetti: 'Frosty wind made moan', which depicts aural imagery. Also, repetition and alliteration is perceived in Rossetti: snow had fallen, snow on snow,/snow on snow. Simile can be found on 'Earth stood hard as iron' and water like a stone' as can be found on Blake: freezes up frail free/The north is thine; there hast thou built thy dark/For he hath rear'd his sceptre o'er the world.
To sum up, through the analysis of these two poems by William Blake and Christina Rossetti we perceive how many differences and similarities do the poems 'The Winter' and 'In the bleak midwinter' present regarding context, literary devices and poetry terms agreeing that every issue is important when analysing and giving a meaning to a composition. Thus, winter is a motif that can be perceived from different points of view: death and end for Blake but birth and beginning for Rossetti. Nevertheless, in both cases winter is seen as harsh, sorrowful and a season that fuels the emotions.
