By Yolande and Caitlin.

1. Frost at Midnight By Yolande and Caitlin.

2. As if the cold is in charge. The Frost performs its secret ministry, Unhelped by an wind. The owlet’s cry Came loud—and hark, again! Loud as before The inmates of my cottage, all at rest, Have left me to that solitude, which suits Abstruser musings: save that at my side My cradled infant slumbers peacefully. The owls cry breaks the silence, twice. Ideas of prison, sounds quite threatening. He is alone in the house, which he prefers. He’s having thoughts that are difficult to understand. Soft , fond words referring to his child.

3. More soft sounding words Paradox- its so quite its become distracting to him ‘ Tiscalm indeed! So calm, that it disturbs And vexes meditation with its strange And extreme silentness. Sea hill and wood, This populous village! Sea hill and wood, With all the numberless goings- on of life, Inaudible dreams! the thin blue flame Lies on my low burnt fire, and quivers not; The repetition suggests its usually a busy place but right now its quite which is odd. Reinforces the business. Metaphor, the fire is tired, resting, sad?

4. Layer of soot Only that film, which fluttered on the grate, Still flutters there, the sole unquiet thing. Methinks its motion in this hush of nature Gives it dim sympathies with me who live, Making it a companionable form, Whose puny flaps and freaks the idling Spirit By its own moods interprets, every where Echo or mirror seeking of itself, And makes a toy of Thought. personification He describes nature as being quite he is describing the flutter on the grate companionable as it is the only thing that is moving. metaphor

5. Is he creative? Imaginative? But O! how oft, How oft, at school, with most believing mind, Presageful, have I gazed upon the bars, To watch that fluttering stranger! and as oft With unclosed lids, already had I dreamt Of my sweet birthplace, and the old church-tower, Whose bells, the poor man's only music, rang From morn to evening, all the hot Fair-day, He is remembering back to when he was at school, and how he would watch a staranger. These things lured him to sleep when he thought of them- links to safety.

6. Another reference to a disturbed feeling. So sweetly, that they stirred and haunted me With a wild pleasure, falling on mine ear Most like articulate sounds of things to come! So gazed I, till the soothing things, I dreamt, Lulled me to sleep, and sleep prolonged my dreams! And so I brooded all the following morn, Awed by the stern preceptor's face, mine eye Fixed with mock study on my swimming book:

7. personification Save if the door half opened, and I snatched A hasty glance, and still my heart leaped up, For still I hoped to see the stranger's face, Townsman, or aunt, or sister more beloved, My playmate when we both were clothed alike! He awakes from his dreams, and hopes to see someone he knows.

8. Adressing his son, like a letter Another calm sounding word to describe his child- his child is precious to him Dear Babe, that sleepest cradled by my side, Whose gentle breathings, heard in this deep calm, Fill up the interspersed vacancies And momentary pauses of the thought! My babe so beautiful! it thrills my heart With tender gladness, thus to look at thee, His childs breathing interupts his thoughts, filling his mind. He loves his child so much, he is filled with gladness just to look at him.

9. The narrator was brought up in the cite which he thinks is unfortunate, whereas he is happy his child will be bought up in the country side. And think that thou shalt learn far other lore, And in far other scenes! For I was reared In the great city, pent mid cloisters dim, And saw nought lovely but the sky and stars. But thou, my babe! shalt wander like a breeze By lakes and sandy shores, beneath the crags Of ancient mountain, and beneath the clouds, There is no nature in the city so when he was a child he saw nothing lovely. simile

10. Which image in their bulk both lakes and shores And mountain crags: so shalt thou see and hear The lovely shapes and sounds intelligible Of that eternal language, which thy God Utters, who from eternity doth teach Himself in all, and all things in himself. Great universal Teacher! he shall mould Thy spirit, and by giving make it ask. Reference to religion By being brought up in the countryside, which God made, his spirit will be moulded by God God has created nature and the countryside

11. All season will be sweet to his child, because he is living in the countryside, surrounded by nature Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee, Whether the summer clothe the general earth With greenness, or the redbreast sit and sing Betwixt the tufts of snow on the bare branch Of mossy apple-tree, while the nigh thatch Smokes in the sun-thaw; whether the eave-drops fall Heard only in the trances of the blast,

12. Repetition- this line is written near the beginning of the poem and now towards the end, at the start it sounds harsh and secretive, but hear it contrasts now sounding beautiful and quite. Or if the secret ministry of frost Shall hang them up in silent icicles, Quietly shining to the quiet Moon. Ends with another reference to quite- reinforces how quite it is

13. Structure • Written in free verse • 4 stanzas, the 1st with 22 lines, the 2nd with 21 lines, the 3rd with 21 lines and the 4th with 10 lines. • Unrhymed lines metered in iambic pentameter. • In the form of a romantic verse monologue.

14. Context • It was written in the time of Romanticism. Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution. In part, it was a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms, and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature. It was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography, education and natural history, It’s this romantic period that influences the poem with its references to nature and how God created nature.