A Hard Frost

Cecil John Day-Lewis

Cecil John Day-Lewis (1904 –
1972)
 Born in Ireland
 Studied at Oxford
 Taught poetry at Harvard
 Lyric poet, critic and translator of literary works
 Preferred nature poetry and personal lyrics
 “A Hard Frost” = one of his nature poems
 Father of actor Daniel Day-Lewis
Background

 Frost = small white ice crystals that form a coating on

surfaces when temperatures reach below freezing
 Because this is an English poem, not all the flowers
mentioned in the poem are native to our country.
 As you read the poem, consider the underlying message
related to the cycle of life.
Title

 Poem describes what the speaker saw when he/she woke

up one winter English morning .
 Besides describing the beauty of nature, speaker also
wanted to relate transformation in nature to the human life
cycle.
Lines 1 – 3

 “changeling” = a replacement (people used to believe that

if a child was different from their family, the fairies had
exchanged the original child for a changeling).
 “precocious” = advanced for his/her age, often said of a
child
 “too brilliant to be true”
 Plosives
 Harsh “t” and “b” consonants – sharp and crisp – like the
frost
Lines 1 – 3 (continued)

 When the speaker goes to bed one winter’s evening, he

expects to find a cold, dark winter’s morning –
 instead he is surprised to find a replacement
(“changeling”):
 A bright morning which deceives him for a moment into
thinking spring had arrived early.
Lines 1 – 3 (continued)

 Personification: frost personified as a thief in the night

who steals the speaker’s world as he knows it, leaving him
something too good to be true.
 Frost transforms the speaker’s world to such an extent that
the speaker accuses the frost of leaving him a replacement
so other, so advanced, that it cannot be true.
Lines 1 – 3 (continued)

 “Image of spring” (line 3)

 Extended metaphor
 Frost compared to various spring flowers
 Comparison ironic: poet uses the beautiful, fragrant and soft
aspects of spring to describe the effects of something cold
and hard (frost).
Lines 4 – 9

 “catkin” (line 5) = long, fluffy, hanging flower of the

willow or hazel tree
 “maydrift” (line 5): poet plays on idea of the may-bush and
a snowdrift, which is a pile of snow
 The may-bush might appear like a softly spreading snowdrift
on the hedge.
 Hedge is weighed down by the vast quantity of mayflowers.
 “elms” = tall shade trees that lose their leaves in winter
Lines 4 – 9 (continued)

 “but blossomers” – alliteration: harsh b-sound – conveys

hardness of the frost
 “blossomers” (line 7) = blossoms / early bloom of flowers
 “amorphous” (line 8) = formless, shapeless, vague and
unstructured
 “blind tissue whence creation formed” (line 9) = mists and
swamps from which life is said to have emerged
Lines 4 – 9 (continued)

 “white lilac”
 Metaphor
 Frost patterns on the window-pane are compared to the white
lilac flower
 Patterns are as beautiful as the many little flowers on a
branch of white lilac.
 “furred like a catkin” = simile
 frost-covered grass – compared to the furry plants called
catkins
Lines 4 – 9 (continued)

 Lines 6 – 7 (“elms…but blossomers in crystal”)

 Metaphor
 Frost-covered trees – compared to crystals
 Lines 7 – 9 (“stems of the mist…creation formed”)
 Simile
 Frost-covered trees peeping through the morning mist are
compared to the “blind tissue” said to have existed at the
beginning of creation.
 This image of formless vegetation conveys how shapeless the
trees appear in the mist.
Lines 4 – 9 summary

 Usually the forest in winter would seem cruel, harsh and

lifeless.
 But with a white frost coating the grass, the hedges and the
trees, everything seems dazzling and beautiful with its
shiny layer that glitters like crystal, diamonds or a sparkly
bridal gown.
Stanza 2 (line 10)

 As the sun rises, the frost sparkles on the grass like

diamonds.
 “The sun looks out” = personification
 “the fields blaze with diamonds” = metaphor
 Shine on the fields – compared to diamonds, emphasised in
the fiery verb “blaze”.
 As diamonds shine and sparkle, so too do the frosty fields in
the sunlight
Lines 11 – 14

 “mockery” = false; a ridiculous copy of

 “bridal gear” = wedding clothing
 “raw” = untouched, without adornment
 “disconsolate” = inconsolable, very sad
 “fairings” = a small present bought at a fair
 “aconite” and “snowdrop” = English flowers that bloom in
late winter and early spring
Lines 11 – 14 (continued)

 Punctuation in line 14: exclamation mark

 Emphasises the disapproval the poet expresses at the frost’s
pretending to be springtime, but the truth being revealed once
the frost melts in the sun.
Lines 11 – 14 (continued)

 “for a few” (line 12) and “flounce and filigree” (line 15)
 F-alliteration
 Repeated f-sound seems mocking: death seems almost
mocked for showing off its winter splendour in ornate
patterns, when beneath the snow, life is already stirring again
in the seeds.
 “No, not here” (line 14) – alliteration
 Repeated n-sound in the negative emphasises poet’s
confidence that wintertime always passes.
Lines 11 – 14 (summary)

 The countryside is personified as a simple country bride,

usually dressed plainly, but transformed by the dazzling
bridal gown she has borrowed for a few hours.
 “bridal gear” (line 11) – metaphor
 Prettifies the landscape for a brief time
 When she returns the wedding dress, she again looks plain
and simple, with only the ordinary winter flowers of
aconite and snowdrop.
Lines 11 – 14 (continued)

 “mockery spring…old fairings” (lines 11 – 13) =

personification
 Landscape is personified as a bride who borrows a beautiful
bridal gown, but must return it in a few hours when she will
again look like her normal, simple, “raw” self.
 Speaker expresses disapproval about the deceit that turns the
countryside into a beautifully adorned bride for a short while
before the “country maid” has to return the dress, which
makes her sad.
Lines 11 – 14 (continued)

 “old fairings” (line 13) = metaphor

 Poet describes simple, winter flowers, aconite and snowdrop,
as old gifts.
 Not as fancy as the shine of the frost
Lines 15 – 19

 “flounce” = when a person either swaggers or storms off

 “filigree” = fine, delicate patterns, usually of gold or silver
wire
 “worrying” = disturbing
 “clods” = hard lumps of soil
 “unclenches” = loosens
Lines 15 – 19

 “filigree” = metaphor
 Shiny patterns of frost – compared to filigree
 Speaker disapproves of frost’s fake, ostentatious display
when the real wealth is beneath the frost where spring is
stirring.
 “But deep below” – plosives
 Harsh plosive sounds emphasise the hardness of the frost
Lines 15 – 19 (continued)

 “clods unclenches”
 Alliteration of the “k” sound
 Echoes the stiffness of the clumps of hard, frosty soil before
they loosen their grip on the seeds
Lines 11 – 19 (summary)

 This scene only lasts a “few hours”, because when the sun
rises, the frost melts.
 Though the speaker disapproves of the of the frost’s
deception, he realises that the frost somehow enables the
seeds to grow.
 He admires the beauty of the frost and how it has changed
the landscape, but he knows that the frost is temporary and
the spring, with its promise of summer, lies just beneath
the frost.
Lines 11 – 19 (continued)

 “frost / worrying the stiff clods” (lines 17 – 18)

 Personification
 Frost disturbs the earth until it releases its tight hold.
 This is a good thing – the frost is part of the process of
germination; it bothers the soil until it frees the seeds to
germinate.
 “breathe” = personification
 Conveys life potential in the seeds
 Sprouting, growing and breaking out of the soil
Lines 11 – 19 (summary)

 Besides portraying the beauty of the hard frost coating the

forest, the speaker also wants to show that after a cold,
harsh winter in which “death” is a necessary part of the
cycle of nature, comes the next stage in the cycle, the time
for life to “breathe” as the seeds begin to grow.
Themes
 The beauty of nature:
 On the surface, poem is about how beautiful a coating
of frost makes the surrounding garden appear.
 The cycle of life or the seasons:
 Speaker explains how new life that comes with spring
is already at work under the hard, frosty ground when
all still appears cold and lifeless in winter.
Themes (continued)

 Appearance vs reality:
 Speaker focuses on the tension between appearance
and reality – describing how frost gives the appearance
of the coming of spring when the reality is that it is still
winter.
Form

 2 stanzas
 Stanza 1:
 9 lines
 Describes the scene
 Stanza 2:
 10 lines
 Comments on the frosty scene, exposing the truth of the first
stanza
Form (continued)

 Free verse
 No regular rhyme scheme
 Lines very similar in length, ranging from 10 to 12
beats per line, except for line 17
 Line 17: shortest line
 Foreground the turning point or moment of epiphany
(marked by the word “But”) when the speaker realises
the reality of life and growth below the deceptive,
sparkly appearance of the hard frost.