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
To-whit! to-who!
A merry note
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot

When all aloud the wind doth blow
And coughing drowns the parson's saw
And birds sit brooding in the snow
And Marian's nose looks red and raw
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl
Then nightly sings the staring owl
To-whit! to-who!
A merry note
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot

William Shakespeare

My mother named me Winter for the storms and blows before. My mother named me Winter for all the cold and silent places that can live inside a woman's heart. "Know these," she said, "know these and you may grow, aware of the dangers that lie before and the ways your heart will shatter over and over and over."

My mother named me Winter because she knew the coldness in her own life, but she felt she found it too late. She had made herself a soft and languid target, too easily stepped on through illusions of warmer days. My mother named me Winter because she made herself as cold as snow, as light as stalagmites of crystal ice, and as bitter as the winds that ravaged through her home, once she knew what the world could do. "If you hold these truths outside yourself, and make them all your own, then maybe ... maybe you won't need to let them in. Maybe your heart will need never melt, in the wake of your having frozen it."

"Winter," she spoke - she shook, the way she spoke - "may you never, never be cold."

Tori Amos' "Winter" (lyrics noded earlier by cethiesus) was released in the US as a "Limited Edition CD5 Maxi Single" in 1991 by Atlantic Records. Either it was originally to only be limited edition but the idea was dropped or Atlantic's concept of limited isn't very limited. As of this writing (a decade after its initial release), the single is still being produced and is easily found in record stores.

The single is packaged in a digipak and includes a small sheet of paper with the lyrics to both "Winter" and the single's b-sides on it (something rarely done with singles). It has a couple of pictures of Tori atop a white horse wearing a shiny, silver (kind of looks like tinfoil) coat and Tori's name spelled out with little scraps of metal on the back.

Track list:

  1. Winter
  2. The Pool
  3. Take to the Sky
  4. Sweet Dreams
  5. Upside Down

All the songs were written by Tori and produced by Davitt Sigerson (except "The Pool" which was produced by Ian Stanley).

written John Marsden
first published in 2000

The first major book from Australian author John Marsden since the extremely popular Tomorrow series. After reading the rest of the books in Tomorrow series this book does seem a bit short, but it still was good to read something new from this author.

The story is centred on a sixteen year old girl called Winter who has been living with relatives since she was orphaned at an early age. As she had been having trouble with the people she was living with Winter decides to return to the country to try and take over the running of her parents farm.

On her arrival in the country she has to deal with the caretakers on her parents farm, the new responsibilities she has chosen to burden herself with and try to find new friends.

While she knows how her father died, the circumstances surrounding her mother's death are still a mystery. However she has heard that she has a reclusive distant relative living in the area who may be able to tell her what happened if she can just find her...

Winter is not as Cold as your Heart

The world I gaze upon from my window is cold, but pristine and beautiful from the new fallen snow that blankets it in pure white. I sit inside, next to you, mesmerized by the glowing fire, wanting to feel your warmth. But your heart is cold, mirroring the temperature outside but not the beauty of it. I want to reach out to you, to touch you, but your indifference is a barrier I have yet to penetrate.

 

I do not understand the distance between the words you speak and your actions. They do not convey the same message. Each morning, I sweep down the stairway, hope high in my heart, that you will look upon me and smile and say, “Good morning” for you are happy to see me. Each morning, I encounter not the happy greeting, not even a casual glance in my direction, only you sitting with your work, entranced in it.

 

I am like a ghost, no, not a ghost, as then I would not feel the pain of it. And I do. I do feel the pain and the emptiness and the longing. For, I still love you. Even more, perhaps, than when we were young. I am as a pet or an accessory to be used for its purpose and then put away until the need again arises for it. I cannot understand why I am not worthy of your love. The sentence, written boldly in ink on parchment stares up at me, mocking me. Your words say you love me; your actions betray you. That sentence taunts me anew.

 

I have reinvented myself time and again in hopes that one of my reincarnations will rekindle the fire in your heart that used to burn for me. The attempts have been in vain and I have only lost myself in the process. The log in the fireplace has burned to but embers and the chill beyond the window seeps inside. I feel it find my heart, encircling it with icy fingers and I resolve to feel no further pain. My heart has turned as cold as yours.

Win"ter (?), n. [AS. winter; akin to OFries. & D. winter, OS. & OHG. wintar, G. winter, D. & Sw. vinter, Icel. vetr, Goth. wintrus; of uncertain origin; cf. Old Gallic vindo- white (in comp.), OIr. find white. .]

1.

The season of the year in which the sun shines most obliquely upon any region; the coldest season of the year.

"Of thirty winter he was old."

Chaucer.

And after summer evermore succeeds Barren winter, with his wrathful nipping cold. Shak.

Winter lingering chills the lap of May. Goldsmith.

⇒ North of the equator, winter is popularly taken to include the months of December, January, and February (see Season). Astronomically, it may be considered to begin with the winter solstice, about December 21st, and to end with the vernal equinox, about March 21st.

2.

The period of decay, old age, death, or the like.

Life's autumn past, I stand on winter's verge. Wordsworth.

Winter apple, an apple that keeps well in winter, or that does not ripen until winter. -- Winter barley, a kind of barley that is sown in autumn. -- Winter berry Bot., the name of several American shrubs (Ilex verticillata, I. laevigata, etc.) of the Holly family, having bright red berries conspicuous in winter. -- Winter bloom. Bot. (a) A plant of the genus Azalea. (b) A plant of the genus Hamamelis (H. Viginica); witch-hazel; -- so called from its flowers appearing late in autumn, while the leaves are falling. -- Winter bud Zool., a statoblast. -- Winter cherry Bot., a plant (Physalis Alkekengi) of the Nightshade family, which has, a red berry inclosed in the inflated and persistent calyx. See Alkekengi. -- Winter cough Med., a form of chronic bronchitis marked by a cough recurring each winter. -- Winter cress Bot., a yellow-flowered cruciferous plant (Barbarea vulgaris). -- Winter crop, a crop which will bear the winter, or which may be converted into fodder during the winter. -- Winter duck. Zool. (a) The pintail. (b) The old squaw. -- Winter egg Zool., an egg produced in the autumn by many invertebrates, and destined to survive the winter. Such eggs usually differ from the summer eggs in having a thicker shell, and often in being enveloped in a protective case. They sometimes develop in a manner different from that of the summer eggs. -- Winter fallow, ground that is fallowed in winter. -- Winter fat. Bot. Same as White sage, under White. -- Winter fever Med., pneumonia. [Colloq.] -- Winter flounder. Zool. See the Note under Flounder. -- Winter gull Zool., the common European gull; -- called also winter mew. [Prov. Eng.] -- Winter itch. Med. See Prarie itch, under Prairie. -- Winter lodge, ∨ Winter lodgment. Bot. Same as Hibernaculum. -- Winter mew. Zool. Same as Winter gull, above. [Prov. Eng.] -- Winter moth Zool., any one of several species of geometrid moths which come forth in winter, as the European species (Cheimatobia brumata). These moths have rudimentary mouth organs, and eat no food in the imago state. The female of some of the species is wingless. -- Winter oil, oil prepared so as not to solidify in moderately cold weather. -- Winter pear, a kind of pear that keeps well in winter, or that does not ripen until winter. -- Winter quarters, the quarters of troops during the winter; a winter residence or station. -- Winter rye, a kind of rye that is sown in autumn. -- Winter shad Zool., the gizzard shad. -- Winter sheldrake Zool., the goosander. [Local, U.S.] -- Winter sleep Zool., hibernation. -- Winter snipe Zool., the dunlin. -- Winter solstice. Astron. See Solstice, 2. -- Winter teal Zool., the green-winged teal. -- Winter wagtail Zool., the gray wagtail (Motacilla melanope). [Prov. Eng.] -- Winter wheat, wheat sown in autumn, which lives during the winter, and ripens in the following summer. -- Winter wren Zool., a small American wren (Troglodytes hiemalis) closely resembling the common wren.

 

© Webster 1913.


Win"ter, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Wintered (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Wintering.]

To pass the winter; to hibernate; as, to winter in Florida.

Because the haven was not commodious to winter in, the more part advised to depart thence. Acts xxvii. 12.

 

© Webster 1913.


Win"ter, v. i.

To keep, feed or manage, during the winter; as, to winter young cattle on straw.

 

© Webster 1913.

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