Winter Evening

By Archibald Lampman

Sonnet
    To-night the very horses springing by     Toss gold from whitened nostrils. In a dream     The streets that narrow to the westward gleam     Like rows of golden palaces; and high     From all the crowded chimneys tower and die     A thousand aureoles. Down in the west     The brimming plains beneath the sunset rest,     One burning sea of gold. Soon, soon shall fly     The glorious vision, and the hours shall feel     A mightier master; soon from height to height,     With silence and the sharp unpitying stars,     Stern creeping frosts, and winds that touch like steel,     Out of the depth beyond the eastern bars,     Glittering and still shall come the awful night.

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Poem Details

Language: English
Keywords: Public Domain
Source: Public Domain Collection
Rights/Permissions: Public Domain
Analysis & Notes:
This poem is a meditation on the fleeting nature of beauty and the inevitability of darkness. The speaker describes a dreamlike scene in which the city is bathed in a golden light, with streets that shimmer like palaces and chimneys that rise like aureoles. The language is rich and evocative, with a focus on sensory details such as the whitened nostrils of the horses and the brimming plains of gold beneath the sunset. The poem's structure, with its consistent meter and lineation, adds to the sense of hypnotic repetition, drawing the reader into the speaker's reverie. However, beneath the poem's dreamlike surface, a tonal shift is underway, as the speaker begins to acknowledge the darkness that lies beyond the golden vision. The language grows more austere, with words like stern, unpitying, and awful introducing a sense of foreboding. The final lines, in which the glittering and still night falls, are a stark contrast to the glorious vision of the opening lines, underscoring the poem's central theme of the transience of beauty and the inevitability of darkness.

Understanding the Sonnet

The sonnet is one of the most enduring and celebrated forms of poetry, known for its strict structure and profound themes. With a history spanning centuries, sonnets have been used to explore love, beauty, politics, and mortality, all within the confines of just 14 lines.

Sonnets are characterized by their precise form and rhyme scheme, which vary depending on the type of sonnet. Here’s a closer look:

  • Shakespearean (English) Sonnet: Composed of three quatrains followed by a final couplet, with a rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG. This form often builds a complex argument or narrative, culminating in a powerful closing statement.
  • Petrarchan (Italian) Sonnet: Divided into an octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines), with a typical rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA for the octave, followed by various patterns in the sestet such as CDECDE or CDCDCD. The octave usually presents a problem, with the sestet providing a resolution.
  • Meter: Sonnets are traditionally written in iambic pentameter, which gives the poem a rhythmic and melodic quality that enhances its emotional impact.

The sonnet’s enduring appeal lies in its ability to condense complex emotions and ideas into a small but potent package, making it a favorite form for poets seeking to explore profound themes with precision and elegance.