Poem:

Summary:

In this poem, ‘When Icicles Hang,’ the poet William Shakespeare criticizes the winter season. When winter comes it brings several influences. The walls are covered with ice. Dick, the shepherd breathes his fingernails to warm them. Tom carries wood to the fireplace. Milk freezes as soon as it is poured into the pail. The blood of living creatures comes to freeze. The roads are covered by snow and become muddy. The staring owl sings a happy song at night while Joan, the cook prepares steaming soup to keep the family members warm.

Critical Analysis:

The poem, "When Icicles Hang by the Wall " is taken from Shakespeare's play "Love's Labour Lost". It is a song to criticize the winter season but the poem doesn't present direct and strong criticism. Poet is able to manage modest criticism to select the objective words. In the poem, the poet very cleverly to shows his dislike ness towards the winter season.

According to the poem, when winter comes it brings several influences, the walls are covered with ice, everything including human life gets influenced by the cold and due to extreme cold, each phenomenon come to freeze. To prevent excessive cold, Dick blows his nail and Tom Carries fire logs into the house. Milk freezes as soon as it is poured into the pail. The blood of living creatures comes to freeze. The snow has covered the way and made it muddy. The staring owl sings at night while Joan is keeling kitchen pots. Priests are unable to deliver his preaching due to his old age and coldness. Birds sit for brooding into their nests to skip away from the cold and due to heavy cold Marian's nose becomes red and raw. These all are the symptoms of the winter season mentioned in the poem that shows the arrival of the winter season. All people used to sit around the fire-place and the sounds of the roasted crabs could be heard. They ate and drank to prevent the coldness of the winter season. Through all these images, we can notice winter is not pleasant in England.