It Was Winter Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHI JKLM NOHPQRST UVWPW XYZA2B2 C2D2ZE2F2G2H2C2YI2WJ 2K2Z I2L2JYC2M2ZN2AO2P2Q2

Winter came as it does in this valleyA
After eight dry months rain fellB
And the mountains straw colored turned green for a whileC
In the canyons where gray laurelsD
Graft their stony roots to graniteE
Streams must have filled the dried up creek bedsF
Ocean winds churned the eucalyptus treesG
And under clouds torn by a crystal of towersH
Prickly lights were glowing on the docksI
-
-
This is not a place where you sit under a caf awningJ
On a marble piazza watching the crowdK
Or play the flute at a window over a narrow streetL
While children s sandals clatter in the vaulted entrywayM
-
-
They heard of a land empty and vastN
Bordered by mountains So they went leaving behind crossesO
Of thorny wood and traces of campfiresH
As it happened they spent winter in the snow of a mountain passP
And drew lots and boiled the bones of their companionsQ
And so afterward a hot valley where indigo could be grownR
Seemed beautiful to them And beyond where fogS
Heaved into shoreline coves the ocean laboredT
-
-
Sleep rocks and capes will lie down inside youU
War councils of motionless animals in a barren placeV
Basilicas of reptiles a frothy whitenessW
Sleep on your coat while your horse nibbles grassP
And an eagle gauges a precipiceW
-
-
When you wake up you will have the parts of the worldX
West an empty conch of water and airY
East always behind you the voided memory of snow covered firZ
And extending from your outspread armsA2
Nothing but bronze grasses north and southB2
-
-
We are poor people much afflictedC2
We camped under various starsD2
Where you dip water with a cup from a muddy riverZ
And slice your bread with a pocketknifeE2
This is the place accepted not chosenF2
We remembered that there were streets and houses where we cameG2
fromH2
So there had to be houses here a saddler s signboardC2
A small veranda with a chair But empty a country whereY
The thunder beneath the rippled skin of the earthI2
The breaking waves a patrol of pelicans nullified usW
As if our vases brought here from another shoreJ2
Were the dug up spearheads of some lost tribeK2
Who fed on lizards and acorn flourZ
-
-
And here I am walking the eternal earthI2
Tiny leaning on a stickL2
I pass a volcanic park lie down at a springJ
Not knowing how to express what is always and everywhereY
The earth I cling to is so solidC2
Under my breast and belly that I feel gratefulM2
For every pebble and I don t know whetherZ
It is my pulse or the earth s that I hearN2
When the hems of invisible silk vestments pass over meA
Hands wherever they have been touch my armO2
Or small laughter once long ago over wineP2
With lanterns in the magnolias for my house is hugeQ2

Czeslaw Milosz



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