📚 Book details
As You Like It by William Shakespeare is both a fan favourite and one of the most heavily criticised of Shakespeare's entire body of work. It ranks as one of his most oft-performed comedies - hence its popularity. This play features an intriguing lyric poem titled "Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind", which was sung by one of the characters of the play, Amiens. In this article, we will analyse the poem through the following five angles:
🔍 Key Analysis
- Poem summary and context
- Key themes discussions
- Poem form and structure
- Language and style
- Imagery and figurative language
📝 Summary & Context of Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind
This lyric poem appears in Act 2, Scene 7 of As You Like It. By that point, Duke Senior (the main character) and his loyal followers (like Jacques and Amiens) were banished to the Forest of Arden by Duke Senior's brother, Duke Frederick, after the latter unfairly and forcibly took his title and power. Dejected and emotionally down, Jaques, a lord in Duke Senior's exiled court, then urges Amiens to lighten the mood with a song.
✅ Poem Summary
Amiens speaks of the bitter cold winter wind at the beginning of the lyric poem. The wind can be unkind and blow strong, but it isn't as cruel as human society. In the second half of the song, Amiens speaks of his friends and how they seem to have forgotten everything he had done for them in the past. Although the wind is bitter and could cause him to freeze, it's not as cold as the behaviour of his friends. Amiens warns us through the repeated chorus that friendship is a sham, that it's only a pretence. And, by extension, loving must be reduced to a folly.
✅ Overview Context
Through this lyric poem, Amiens comments on how human insolence and lack of appreciation are more bitter than anything winter could deliver. This poem reflects the harm and misery that those closest to us can inflict, especially when it comes to a power struggle, even in the family.
🪞 Key characters
- Amiens: The singer of the poem, who accompanied Duke Senior during his exile, is perceived to be reflective and philosophical through his poetry
- Duke Senior: A duke who has been exiled and betrayed by his brother, Duke Frederick
🪞Settings
- Forest of Arden: The physical setting where the main characters sought temporary refuge
- Merciless weather conditions: The winter wind and bitter sky are a reflection of the emotional setting of the characters, but this harsh nature is viewed as more tolerable than the hypocrisy of human nature
This poem shows a different side of the suffering of human relationships in terms of friendship betrayal as opposed of what is discussed in the Romantic poem by Lord Byron, When We Two Parted.
🪶 Discussion of Themes Of Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind
While Amiens' character contributes very little to the play's action, this lyric poem that he sang played a significant role in highlighting the major conflict plot of the play, the exile of Duke Senior by his very own brother, Duke Frederick. Throughout the poem, two key themes are highlighted through contrasts of the following philosophical concepts:
🌬️ Theme 1: Nature vs Human Nature
The central message of Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind revolves around the hurt and disappointment faced by humans caused by betrayal, ingratitude, and the hypocrisy of false relationships. While it reflects the emotional state of Duke Senior's court in the Forest of Arden consists of people rudely betrayed, in friendship and by family, it also highlights how such pain is a universal experience that anyone can endure.
Throughout the first and second stanzas, Shakespeare contrasts the harshness of winter (nature) with the cruelty of man's behaviour (human nature).
Although the cold winter wind is unseen and painful, it is more bearable and predictable than the tangibility of human betrayal (human nature), which can be far more devastating.
💔 Theme 2: True vs False Friendships
Another contrast of themes that Shakespeare demonstrates in this poem is the difference between a true friendship and a false one. The speaker expresses disappointment and hurt, as he seems to believe that friendship should be built on loyalty, gratitude, and steadfast companionship — not forgotten after all the kindness and support one has given.
The line "Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly" is repeated in the chorus after each stanza to highlight how the author emphasises the speaker’s deep disappointment in the pretence of friendship and the foolishness of trusting in love.
Unlike nature, most friendships are often inconsistent and unreliable, leaving people in pain.
If you are a fan of darker, psychological themes in poetry, you can explore Porphyria's Lover by Robert Browning.
💬 Form & Structure of Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind
Now, let's move on to the form and structure of this poem. Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind is a lyrical poem spoken by the character Amiens in the first person's voice. It is integrated into the play, As You Like It and is meant to be performed with music to create an emotional impact.
On the other hand, this poem's structure consists of two stanzas (6 lines each), each followed by a repeated chorus (4 lines). The reflective and sarcastic tone of the chorus contributes to a sombre, melancholic mood that complements the setting of the play.
Some of the most important features of a poem are the meter, rhyming words, and repetition, which contribute to the musicality, rhythm, and effectiveness of conveying the main message of the poem to the audience:
This poem is written in an iambic trimeter, where an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable:
Blow, blow, thy winter wind. (da-Dum) where each line consists of three metrical feet.
There are a few notable rhyming pairs in each stanza:
"Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,"
"Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp"
Some clear examples from this poem include how the author begins each stanza:
Blow, blow thou winter wind
Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky
🎨 Language & Style of Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind
Shakespeare is known for nothing if not the clever use of English. His name is practically synonymous with the sonnet; he was a master of stylised language. In his early writings, we find lots of phrases and constructions conventional in his day. They didn't necessarily fit with his characters' personae or, indeed, the plays themselves. He soon abandoned convention and started exploring novel uses for English words.
In Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind, Shakespeare makes ample use of language and style to enrich the text and make it vivid. He specifically used two major sound devices to create a beautiful sense of rhythm, emphasis to evoke a desired mood for this poem as it is delivered by the speaker.
🎶 Aliteration
- The repetition of a consonant sound creates a sense of rhythm at the beginning of words
- Example from the line: "Though thou the waters warp" with the repetition of the "the" and "was" sound
🎶 Consonance
- The repetition of consonant sounds within or end of the words for a subtle texture, not right after another.
- Example from the line: "Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly" with the subtle repetition of the "ng" sound
Apart from sound devices, Shakespeare also applied different poetic devices in terms of language and style to draw the audience's attention to the main idea of the poem: nature vs human nature, and also the pain of false friendships.
💡 Apostrophe
- A poetic device used to directly address something that is usually non-human (like wind, sky) for a dramatic effect
- Example from the line: "Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky”
- Amiens was commanding the sky (non-human) to "freeze" in a human-like dialogue
💡 Enjambment
- A poetic device used to connect ideas across lines and stanzas without any punctuation or pause to create flow
- Example from the line: "Thy sting is not so sharp/As friend remembered not"
- Amiens was redirecting the audience to reflect on the agony of being forgotten by a friend
✨ Imagery & Figurative Language of Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind
The Bard is well known for using imagery through literal, descriptive texts that appeal to the senses, promising an enchanting visual experience, whether the text is read or heard. That way, the audience can actually directly picture something in their mind.
| Imagery Examples | Explanation |
|---|---|
| "Blow, blow, thou winter wind," | This text allows the audience to actually feel as if the cold wind is blowing near them, implying the coldness of their heart after being betrayed. |
| "Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky" | This text is used to describe the literal bitterness of the cold weather. It is something that the audience can actually picture, through real experience to relate with the bitterness of emotional pain. |
Figurative language, on the other hand, uses non-literal language to evoke a symbolic comparison of something. There are many devices under the umbrella of figurative language such as personification, irony, and a few others.
| Figurative Language Examples | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Personification in the line “Thy tooth is not so keen” | The wind is compared to a living thing that has a shrap tooth that can bite |
| Irony in the line “This life is most jolly” | After the speaker talks about the harsh pain of friendship betrayals, his sudden switch to describe life as jolly is a form of sarcasm |
| Symbolism through natural elements (wind, and sky) | The description of wind and sky act as symbols of harsh and bitter emotions when betrayal and ingratitude happened in friendships |
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Studying poetry through the lens of William Shakespeare is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the world of English literature. For instance, you can learn more about the British cavalry brigade during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War through Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade.
Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words
Edgar Allan Poe
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so profound so real
things humans can do to their kingsmen and friends
Thank you for your thoughtful comment! Shakespeare’s words in As You Like It truly capture the complexities of human nature—how friendships can sometimes be colder than winter’s bite. It’s a timeless reminder of both kindness and betrayal.