Winter: My Secret

The speaker addresses an unidentified listener. There is a reluctance to share a secret with him/her.

The seasons are referenced as metaphors to explain and justify the speaker’s silence. However the secret is never revealed.

The rhyme scheme of the poem does vary and there is internal punctuation.

There are four stanzas with varying lengths and this is usually thirty four lines

There is a basic, iambic and metrical pattern and some rhyme

The effect of the odd and inconsistent structure is to show the animated excitement, strain and constraint of the speaker throughout the poem

The tipple reference to the weather in line 3 does begin this allusion.

Instantly the reader is hooked by the interrogative and the speaker shows delight in possessing a secret.

The reader is addressed with an exclamatory statement which reflects the excitement…