When Icicles Hang by the Wall

First Stanza

WHEN icicles hang by the wall,

And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,

And Tom bears logs into the hall,

And milk comes frozen home in pail,

When blood is nipp’d and ways be foul,

Then nightly sings the staring owl,

Tu-who;

Tu-whit, a merry note,

While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

Paraphrase:

    This song is taken from from Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act V, scene 2. Shakespeare ends his early comedy with two songs, one to Spring, the other to Winter. Here we have an early depiction of what winter would have meant to peasants in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

    It is so cold that icicles hang on the walls; Dick the shepherd is desperately trying to warm his hands and fingernails by blowing on them while Tom his mate is chopping logs to feed the fire in the great Hall where the lords and ladies are gathered. The cows have been milked and their produce is frozen solid in the buckets. Everyone is frozen cold by the weather. All the paths and tracks are extremely difficult to navigate with a sea of mud frozen solid. The barn owl is hooting for a mate. Joan, who works in the scullery, is busy scouring the pots which does little to improve her appearance, covered as she is with oily fat from all the saucepans and frying pans she is endeavouring to clean. Shakespeare gives Joan the key spot, putting her in the last line and commending her toils with the epithet greasy. He is not sneering at her; rather he commends her labours and admires her dignity. The word keel comes from turning a boat upside down and scrubbing its bottom of all the barnacles clinging there.

Rhyme Scheme: 

ABABCCDE