Winter: My Secret

Analysis of Winter: My Secret

1st stanza -

• "I tell my secret?" - rhetorical
• Seems self obsessed
• "Perhaps" used as an adverb
• Internal rhyme - humorous
• Direct address
• 3 rhetorical questions - recreate other speakers' voices - high frequency
• "Fie!" - exclamatory - used to express disgust and outrage
• "Mine" and "I" - possessive

2nd stanza -

• "But only just my fun" and "suppose" - teasing
• "Nipping" and "Biting" - personification - secret could be eating away at her
• "One" - pronoun
• "Cannot ope to anyone who taps" - doesn't want to open up to anyone
• Couplet increases the pace of the poem
• "I wear my mask for warmth" - figurative connotations
• "Shows", "blows" and "snows" - rhyming triplet
• "Believe" - imperative - telling them to trust her 

3rd stanza -

• "Yet I don't trust" - playful paranoia
• Personification of the seasons
• Focus is on the negatives

4th stanza -

• Juxtaposition of "languid" and "summer day"
• "Not too much sun nor too much cloud" - perfect conditions necessary to tell secret - possibly means there is no secret or there is no way she will ever tell anyone
• "Or you may guess" - guess may be better than reality or may not have a secret - teasing
• Gives hope to the person being addressed

Overall -

• Title - ambiguous
• Complex punctuation used throughout - not actually explaining anything
• Woman is asserting power over a man - pushing boundaries
• Irregular rhyme scheme
• Undermining the power of a woman