Poem of the week: Now winter nights by Thomas Campion

"Now winter nights enlarge The number of their hours; And clouds their storms discharge Upon the airy towers. Now let the chimneys blaze And cups o'erflow with wine, Let well-tuned words amaze With harmony divine. Now yellow waxen lights Shall wait on honey love While youthful revels, masques and courtly sights, Sleep's leaden spells remove. This time doth well dispense With lovers' long discourse; Much speech hath some defence, Though beauty no remorse."

"Iambic trimeter is the poem's dominant rhythm, allowing a light but firm step appropriate to the themes. But in each verse, the penultimate line claims more space. I think the effect of this shift to iambic pentameter is perhaps explained in the opening of the poem: Now winter nights enlarge / The number of their hours Campion expands his allowance of number to demonstrate metrically those longer nights, and the endless possibiliti"

Winter nights lengthen and storms discharge upon high towers while chimneys blaze and cups overflow with wine. Well-tuned words and harmonious music accompany yellow waxen lights, honeyed love, youthful revels, masques, and courtly spectacle that lift sleep's leaden spells. Winter supplies pleasures that shorten lovers' long discourse, though beauty shows no remorse. The dominant rhythm is iambic trimeter, producing a light but steady step. Penultimate lines expand toward iambic pentameter, metrically mirroring extended nights and enlarging imagistic and tonal possibilities.

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