A HARD FROST- Cecil Day Lewis
A frost came in the night and stole my world
And left this changeling for it – a precocious
Image of spring, too brilliant to be true;
White lilac on the windowpane, each grass-blade
Furred like a catkin, maydrift loading the hedge
The elms behind the house are elms no longer
But blossomers in crystal, stems of the mist
That hangs yet in the valley below, amorphous
As the blind tissue whence creation formed.
The sun looks out, and the fields blaze with diamonds.
Mockery spring, to lend this bridal gear
For a few hours to a raw country maid,
Then leave her all disconsolate with old fairings
Of aconite and snowdrop! No, not here
Amid this flounce and filigree of death
Is the real transformation scene in progress
But deep below where frost
Worrying the stiff clods unclenches their
Grip on the seed and lets
our future breath.
, A HARD FROST
Questions and answers
Stanza 1:
1. What impression of the frost is created in the first stanza?
The frost is described as being ‘brilliant’ (line 3) and has formed "crystals”
(line 7) on the elm trees. It thus gives the impression of being something
beautiful/magical/marvellous.
2. Explain why the speaker says the frost “stole [his] world” in line 1.
The previous day, the countryside had looked just as it always did but, in
the night, there was a dramatic transformation as the frost created
beautiful icy patterns. The speaker feels annoyed by the way the frost took
away the familiar world and replaced it with something else.
3. In this poem personification is used very effectively, giving human
qualities to the frost, the countryside and, briefly, the sun.
Refer to lines 1-2 to comment on the actions of this hard frost. Begin by
listing the verbs which carry the personification connected with the
changeling, the object of the actions.
The verbs are: came, stole and left. The frost is a fairy or magical creature
who has come secretly in the night and taken away the winter countryside
the poet knows Well, leaving in its place what looks like early spring. It has
done this by transforming everything into something new and beautiful.
4. Account for the use of the word Changeling In line 2.
A Changeling is a substitutes child left in the place of another. The frost
that has covered the speaker's garden is simply a substitute for the coming
spring- it is not 'real'.
A frost came in the night and stole my world
And left this changeling for it – a precocious
Image of spring, too brilliant to be true;
White lilac on the windowpane, each grass-blade
Furred like a catkin, maydrift loading the hedge
The elms behind the house are elms no longer
But blossomers in crystal, stems of the mist
That hangs yet in the valley below, amorphous
As the blind tissue whence creation formed.
The sun looks out, and the fields blaze with diamonds.
Mockery spring, to lend this bridal gear
For a few hours to a raw country maid,
Then leave her all disconsolate with old fairings
Of aconite and snowdrop! No, not here
Amid this flounce and filigree of death
Is the real transformation scene in progress
But deep below where frost
Worrying the stiff clods unclenches their
Grip on the seed and lets
our future breath.
, A HARD FROST
Questions and answers
Stanza 1:
1. What impression of the frost is created in the first stanza?
The frost is described as being ‘brilliant’ (line 3) and has formed "crystals”
(line 7) on the elm trees. It thus gives the impression of being something
beautiful/magical/marvellous.
2. Explain why the speaker says the frost “stole [his] world” in line 1.
The previous day, the countryside had looked just as it always did but, in
the night, there was a dramatic transformation as the frost created
beautiful icy patterns. The speaker feels annoyed by the way the frost took
away the familiar world and replaced it with something else.
3. In this poem personification is used very effectively, giving human
qualities to the frost, the countryside and, briefly, the sun.
Refer to lines 1-2 to comment on the actions of this hard frost. Begin by
listing the verbs which carry the personification connected with the
changeling, the object of the actions.
The verbs are: came, stole and left. The frost is a fairy or magical creature
who has come secretly in the night and taken away the winter countryside
the poet knows Well, leaving in its place what looks like early spring. It has
done this by transforming everything into something new and beautiful.
4. Account for the use of the word Changeling In line 2.
A Changeling is a substitutes child left in the place of another. The frost
that has covered the speaker's garden is simply a substitute for the coming
spring- it is not 'real'.
