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How like a Winter has my absence beene
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting yeare!
What freezings have I felt, what darke daies seene!
What old Decembers barenesse every where!
And yet this time remov'd was sommers time,
The teeming Autumne big with ritch increase,
Bearing the wanton burthen of the prime,
Like widdowed wombes after their Lords decease:
Yet this aboundant issue seem'd to me,
But hope of Orphans, and un-father'd fruite,
For Sommer and his pleasures waite on thee,
And thou away, the very birds are mute.
Of if they sing, tis with so dull a cheere,
That leaves looke pale, dreading the Winters neere.
Commentary
Commentary
Address to his absent beloved
Address to his absent beloved
Changes to the original text: end of lines 2, 3 and 4, question marks changed to exclamation marks
In the first quatrain, the poet exclaims that his beloved's absence has been for him like a dark December.
In the second quatrain, the poet points out that this is the case even though the time of his (the poet's) absence is summer and autumn. with its plenty (the wanton burden of its prime), a plenty which the poet likens to the wombs of widows after the death of their Lords. Nice.
In the third quatrain, the poet notes that this plenty is like the hope of orphans (deceiving) or fruit without a father (clearly something is lacking), nice similes for feelings of abandonment / absence, and, what's more, observes the poet, no birds sing.
In the final couplet, the poet remarks that even if the birds do sing a little, their song is dull, and the leaves on the trees have turned pale from fear of the approaching winter.
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