Summary and theme of Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind William Shakespeare- HSC English 1st paper

Summary and theme of Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind

William Shakespeare- HSC English 1st paper

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,

Thou art not so unkind

As man's ingratitude ;

Thy tooth is not so keen,

Because thou art not seen,

Although thy breath be rude.

Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly:

Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:

Then heigh-ho, the holly!

This life is most jolly.

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,

That dost not bite so nigh

As benefits forgot:

Though thou the waters warp,

Thy sting is not so sharp

As friend remembered not.

High-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly...

Vocabulary  checkpoint

Unkind -Cruel
Tooth- biting cold of winter
Rude- rough, coarse
High-ho- An expression of joy
The green holly- An evergreen bush or tree which is a symbol of the everlasting friendliness of nature.
Feigning- Pretending, deceiving
Bite so nigh- Bite sharply or deeply (to the bone)
Nigh- near
Waters warp- Referring to the wind curling and ruffling the sea. Water turns to ice.
As benefits forgot- as the attitude of those who, after receiving favours, prove thankless.
As friend remember’d not- as is a man’s ungrateful behaviour in forgetting a friend.

Critical appreciation

The winter wind can blow as much hard as it likes because it is not so harsh and rude like man’s nature of being ungrateful. The attack of the winter wind is not so sharp because it is not visible although it is bitingly cold. The poet here says that the friendship is only a pretence and loving is nothing but absurdity and foolery. The poet asks the frosty sky to freeze because it won’t cause him deep pain as caused by his friends who forget his favours instead of being thankful.

The main idea of the poem is that the poet keenly observed the shrewdness, hypocrisy, treachery, betrayal and sinfulness of human beings. Here the poet thinks that human friendship is also feigning and hypocritical. It has no depth or significance. So he glorifies winter wind and invites it to blow. He thinks that winter wind is not as unkind as man's ingratitude. That's why, he prefers winter wind, which has no sensation, to human beings.

The first stanza of this poem affirms that the effect of man's ingratitude is more unkind than the biting effect of the winter wind, because the wind remains unseen, whereas the man guilty of ingratitude stands before us in all his repulsive humanity as a permanent focus for our bitter feelings. The second stanza compares man's ingratitude to freezing temperatures, which, though able to 'warp water', ie freeze water, do not 'bite so nigh' as a man who forgets favours done. The first six lines in each stanza are followed by the same jolly six line refrain which make the generalisation from these particular observations 'most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly'.