“Winter Song” Summary

• Don't ask me anymore to prove the truth of my commitment or what I'd be willing to go through for love. I'd follow you even if that meant being banished to harsh lands of constant winter, where vast blocks of ice imprison flowing water. I'd go with you through the desolate forest, where the harsh northern wind blows. There, I'd look all around this wild, barren landscape. If you had to hunt after a frightened deer or fight against a powerful aggressor, I'd be there without fear, holding your weapons for you and handing you your hunting spear. And when the winter sun goes down, threatening a night that lasts for six months, the moon and stars will guide us on our journey. Under the mountain's ledge, or within its caves, I'd make us hearty meals from the earth. I wouldn't be jealous of life in grand, lavish mansions. I'd make your bed with the softest moss and spread wild treasures all around you. I'd watch over you with steadfast love, ensuring no harm could come to you in sleep.

“Winter Song” Themes

• 

  Love and Commitment

  "Winter Song" is a passionate assertion of romantic love. The poem's speaker, seeming to respond to a lover who has questioned their commitment, illustrates the immense sacrifices they would readily make in love's name. In this poem, love essentially equals unwavering commitment—a willingness to be there for another person no matter how trying the circumstances.

  The speaker attempts to "prove" their "truth," by which they mean illustrate their steadfast commitment to their lover, by listing off all the difficult and outright terrible things they’d go through on love’s behalf. For this love, the speaker would willingly leave everything they know behind and go into "exile." They'd gladly suffer the harshest winter conditions—"regions of eternal snow" and "solid ice"—to be with their lover. They'd take up "arms" for them (that is, fight for them), watch out for danger while they sleep, and nourish them by preparing "rural feast[s]." In short, the speaker would always have their beloved's back, no matter what hardships came along.

  What's more, all this would seem completely tolerable, perhaps even pleasant, when done in the service of love. That is, the sacrifices that come with true love wouldn't really seem like sacrifices at all to this speaker. Love would give the speaker courage, strength, and patience to endure any obstacles.

  Indeed, it sounds like the speaker would relish living in this environment so long as they could do so with their beloved by their side. They'd dress their bed with the "softest moss" and cook marvelous meals with whatever they could find. Not even the lavish, comfortable lifestyle of those who live in "palaces" could tempt them, the speaker says; material riches are no match for the comforts of love, which can make a paradise out of a hellscape.

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Winter Song”

• Lines 1-2

  Ask me no more, my truth to prove,
  What I would suffer for my love.

  The poem's opening phrase implies that the speaker's lover has just questioned their commitment. "Ask me no more," the speaker begins, "What I would suffer for my love." In other words: Stop asking me what terrible things I'd go through in the name of love!

  The rest of the poem then consists of the speaker attempting to "prove" the "truth" of their love—to show their lover just how committed they really are.

  These lines establish the poem's use of iambic tetrameter. This means that each line has four iambs, poetic units that follow an unstressed-stressed syllabic pattern (da-DUM), for a total of eight syllables per line. Iambic meters are very common in English language poetry because they approximate the sound of regular speech. Here, they also create a sense of rhythmic momentum and intensity.

  Yet there's a variation on this meter from the poem's very first moment. "Ask me" scans most naturally as a trochee, a foot with a stressed-unstressed beat pattern, while the next foot is a spondee (two stressed beats in a row):

  Ask me | no more, | my truth | to prove,
  What I | would suf- | fer for | my love.

  This begins things on a rousing, forceful note that conveys the force of the speaker's command to their listener. Note, too, the /m/ alliteration of "me," "more," and "my." This lends even more strength to the poem's opening, signaling the speaker's determination to make their case.

  Finally, these two lines create a rhyming couplet: "prove" rhymes with "love" (though this sounds like a slant rhyme to modern ears, it wouldn't have been in Tollet's time). The poem will use couplets throughout, which makes sense: couplets are rhyming pairs, and the speaker is describing their devotion to a partnership. The consistent rhyme here and throughout the poem subtly reflects the strength of the bond between the speaker and the poem's addressee.

• Lines 3-8

  With thee I would in exile go
  To regions of eternal snow,
  O'er floods by solid ice confined,
  Through forest bare with northern wind:
  While all around my eyes I cast,
  Where all is wild and all is waste.

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  If there the tim'rous stag you chase,
  Or rouse to fight a fiercer race,
  Undaunted I thy arms would bear,
  And give thy hand the hunter's spear.

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-16

  When the low sun withdraws his light,
  And menaces an half-year's night,
  The conscious moon and stars above
  Shall guide me with my wand'ring love.

  

  

  

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• Lines 17-20

  Beneath the mountain's hollow brow,
  Or in its rocky cells below,
  Thy rural feast I would provide.
  Nor envy palaces their pride.

  

  

  

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• Lines 21-24

  The softest moss should dress thy bed,
  With savage spoils about thee spread:
  While faithful love the watch should keep,
  To banish danger from thy sleep.

  

  

  

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“Winter Song” Symbols

• 

  The Harsh Winter

  In "Winter Song," the speaker imagines a hypothetical scenario: their lover being banished to a wintry land of "eternal snow," filled with "solid ice," barren forests, frosty wind, and a "low sun" that threatens "a half-year's night." The speaker says that they would readily follow their lover "in exile," accompanying them through this inhospitable landscape.

  Readers can think of this winter world as symbolizing all the various trials and tribulations of life that can threaten love. The harshness of this world, in turn, conveys the strength of the speaker's commitment to their beloved: the speaker would sacrifice traditional creature comforts—warmth, light, security—on their beloved's behalf.

  "Exile" to this place might represent a situation in which the speaker and/or their lover fall out of favor with their peers. The scarceness of food might stand in for times when the couple is short on resources (e.g., money), while the "fiercer race" perhaps reflects people opposed to the couple's union.

  More broadly, winter is a season linked with darkness, death, and hardship. That the speaker would find comfort and tenderness within this harsh winter world testifies to the power of love itself.

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• 

  The Moon and Stars

  The speaker references "the conscious moon and stars above" in lines 15-16, declaring that these will guide the couple along their "wand'ring" way.

  The speaker is personifying the elements of the night sky here, imbuing these celestial objects with will and agency. Stars often symbolize fate, and the fact that the stars want to "guide" the couples thus suggests that the speaker and their beloved are destined to be together. The refusal of the stars/moon to be dimmed might also reflect the steadfast nature of the speaker's commitment.

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“Winter Song” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  The speaker in "Winter Song" uses alliteration to strengthen their promise of love. Shared sounds intensify the poem's language, making the poem—and the speaker's declarations—more musical and memorable.

  In line 1, for example, repeated /m/ sounds make the speaker's command seem all the more insistent and purposeful:

  Ask me no more, my truth to prove,

  After that, the poem enters a hypothetical situation in which the speaker and their lover are condemned to "exile" in a harsh winter world. Alliteration helps create a vivid picture of this inhospitable environment. Take line 8, where the speaker presents the landscape as untameable and unforgiving:

  Where all is wild and all is waste.

  Those whooshing /w/ sounds evoke the rush of a "wild" wind whipping through a wasteland.

  Later, the speaker outlines multiple threats the couple might meet in this world (and how they would rise to the challenge). The fricative /f/ sounds in "fight a fiercer race" come across as aggressive and sudden, while the /h/ sounds of "hand the hunter's spear" seem almost breathless.

  Note, too, the crisp, plosive /p/ sounds of "provide," "palaces," and "pride" in lines 19-20. These sharp, popping sounds add a haughty dismissiveness to the speaker's tone, reflecting how little the speaker cares for fancy mansions when they've got a humble home with their beloved right there.

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• Parallelism

  

  

  

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• Personification

  

  

  

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• Sibilance

  

  

  

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“Winter Song” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Thee/Thy
• Exile
• O'er
• Confined
• My eyes I cast
• Tim'rous
• Stag
• Rouse
• Undaunted
• Bear
• Menaces
• Half-year's night
• Cells
• Rural
• Watch
• Banish

• Old-fashioned forms of "you"/"your."

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Winter Song”

• Form

  "Winter Song" consists of a single 24-line stanza. This long stanza can also be broken up into 12 rhyming couplets (two-line stanzas).

  This long, unbroken stanza perhaps evokes the long, daunting journey that the speaker imagines taking on their beloved's behalf. The use of steady rhyming couplets, meanwhile, subtly reflects the "pairing" of the speaker and their love.

• Meter

  "Winter Song" uses iambic tetrameter throughout. Iambic tetrameter refers to lines of four iambs, poetic feet that follow an unstressed-stressed syllable pattern (da-DUM).

  As an example, listen to line 3:

  With thee | I would | in ex- | ile go

  Iambs have a bouncy rhythm that, here, creates a sense of momentum. The speaker promises to stay constant, reliable, and strong—just like the poem's meter.

  There are some minor variations here and there, which add some interest and emphasis to certain moments. Check out the poem's opening couplet, for example:

  Ask me | no more, | my truth | to prove,
  What I | would suf-| fer for | my love.

  The first few two feet here are relatively ambiguous, their stresses depending somewhat on reader interpretation. We'd argue the line scans most naturally like this: with an opening trochee (DUM-da) followed by a forceful spondee (DUM-DUM). Front-loading the line with stresses adds intensity to the speaker's command that their beloved stop asking them to prove their commitment.

  And listen to what happens in line 13, in which the sun is cast as a kind of villain:

  When the | low sun | withdraws | his light,

  The first foot here sounds like a pyrrhic (two unstressed beats in a row) followed by another spondee. The spondee's double stresses add a heaviness to the phrase "low sun," evoking the cruel sun's downward motion in the sky.

• Rhyme Scheme

  "Winter Song" uses rhyming couplets throughout: AABBCCDD... and so on. While some of these rhymes sound slant to modern ears, most would have been perfect in the pronunciation of Tollet's day.

  The use of couplets here reflects the bond between the speaker and their lover. Rhymes also suggest intimacy, compatibility, and connection.

  Couplets also give the poem a strong sense of forward motion, evoking the left foot-right foot pattern of walking. This makes sense, given that the speaker imagines themselves and their lover on a kind of epic journey.

“Winter Song” Speaker

• The first-person speaker in "Winter Song" has a point to prove:

  Ask me no more, my truth to prove,
  What I would suffer for my love.

  The poem is addressed to the speaker's lover, who has apparently been questioning the speaker's commitment. The speaker imagines a hypothetical scenario in order to demonstrate all the ways in which they'll be a good, dependable partner—no matter what life throws at the couple.

  It's likely Tollet envisioned her speaker as female, given that this person undertakes the kind of domestic tasks typically done by women in the 18 century. The speaker isn't the one fighting or hunting here, but rather holding their partner's spear; the speaker also offers to handle cooking and making up their love's bed.

“Winter Song” Setting

• The speaker of "Winter Song" conjures up a hypothetical world in order to prove their commitment to their beloved. This world is, as the title suggests, a land of "eternal" winter: a land filled with "snow" and "solid ice," "bare" forests, and a chilly "northern wind." The speaker sees "wild" and "waste" everywhere they look, and is forced to find shelter under a "mountain's hollow brow" or in the "rocky cells" (caves) below.

  The harshness of this winter world reflects the strength of the speaker's love—something so powerful, the speaker argues, that it can turn this miserable landscape into something better than a "palaces." The speaker would line their lover's bed with the "softness moss" and look to the moon and stars above for guidance. They'd prepare a "rural feast" and guard their lover in sleep. In short, they'd make this barren world a loving home.

  Of course, this setting isn't real; the speaker is imagining this world. The actual setting remains vague, but it doesn't matter; the speaker insists that they'd follow their beloved anywhere.

Literary and Historical Context of “Winter Song”

Literary Context

The English poet Elizabeth Tollet lived from 1694 to 1754. Scholars don't know if Tollet had a specific person in mind while writing "Winter Song." Little is known about her personal life at all, in fact, apart from the fact that she remained unmarried until her death.

Tollet's best-known poem is "Hypatia," an early precursor of feminist literature that laments "What cruel laws depress the female kind, / To humble cares and servile tasks confined!" "Winter Song" is a somewhat unusual poem within the overall context of Tollet's work (much of which has likely been lost) in its focus on love and personal emotion.

Tollet wrote during the Augustan era (so-called because the king at the time, George I, likened himself to the Roman Emperor Augustus). Augustan writers, the most famous of whom was Alexander Pope, usually wrote formally strict, witty poems (often in couplets, the same form Tollet uses here) that took their cues from classical literature (e.g. odes, elegies, and satires). This literary movement was influenced by the great Latin poets of the original Augustan age (the reign of Emperor Augustus from 27 BCE to 14 CE). Like her Augustan peers, Tollet was an avid reader and even translator of writers like Ovid, Horace, and Virgil.

Historical Context

Tollet was unusually well-educated for a woman of her era. Noticing her knack for learning, Tollet’s father encouraged her to read widely. Her fluency in Latin—in addition to more societally permissible languages for women like Italian and French—was a particular challenge to the conventions of the age. She produced numerous translations of classical poetry and religious texts, and she had a strong understanding of science and mathematics. Isaac Newton admired her intelligence, and she even wrote an elegy for the scientist when he died.

Despite her clear aptitude for academics, Tollet's options would have been limited as a woman of her day. Women in the early 18th century were largely excluded from universities and influential cultural/scientific institutions. Male-dominated society deemed them intellectually inferior, and, as Tollet points out in "Hypatia," women who did attempt to enter these guarded worlds were often mocked: "Yet oft we hear, in height of stupid pride, / Some senseless idiot curse a lettered [educated] bride."

Single women were expected to prioritize their looks in the pursuit of finding a husband, an attitude that Tollet also satirized in her work.

More “Winter Song” Resources

• External Resources

  • More of Tollet's Poetry — Explore a selection of the poet's work. 

  • Tollet and Science — Listen to an eclectic podcast exploring Tollet's life and interests. 

  • Women in the Age of Newton — An article looking the scientific world during Tollet's lifetime.

  • The Role of Women in the 18th Century — An article exploring gender in British society during Tollet's life.