“In drear nighted December” Summary

“In drear nighted December” Themes

• 

  Memory and the Pain of Loss

  • See where this theme is active in the poem.
• 

  Nature’s Constancy vs. Humanity’s Unpredictability

  • See where this theme is active in the poem.

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “In drear nighted December”

• Lines 1-4

  In drear nighted December
  Too happy, happy tree
  Thy Branches ne'er remember
  Their green felicity—

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 5-8

  The north cannot undo them
  With a sleety whistle through them
  Nor frozen thawings glew them
  From budding at the prime—

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 9-16

  In drear nighted December
  Too happy happy Brook
  Thy bubblings ne'er remember
  Apollo's Summer look
  But with a sweet forgetting
  They stay their crystal fretting
  Never never petting
  About the frozen time—

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 17-20

  Ah! would 'twere so with many
  A gentle girl and boy—
  But were there ever any
  Writh'd not of passed joy:

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 21-24

  The feel of not to feel it
  When there is none to heal it
  Nor numbed sense to steel it
  Was never said in rhyme—

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

“In drear nighted December” Symbols

• 

  Winter

  • See where this symbol appears in the poem.

“In drear nighted December” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Apostrophe

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Allusion

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Juxtaposition

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Repetition

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

“In drear nighted December” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Drear nighted
• Happy
• Ne'er
• Felicity
• Glew
• At the prime
• Apollo
• Fretting
• Petting
• Would 'twere so
• Writh'd
• Steel

• • See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “In drear nighted December”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“In drear nighted December” Speaker

“In drear nighted December” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “In drear nighted December”

More “In drear nighted December” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem Aloud — Listen to a reading of the poem.

  • More on Keats — Learn more about Keats and his contemporaries via the Keats-Shelley Museum in Rome—housed in the apartment where Keats spent his last days.

  • A Brief Biography — Learn more about Keats's life and work via the British Library.

  • The Poem in Manuscript — See a copy of the poem written out by Keats's good friend John Reynolds. This version was once thought to be in Keats's own hand, since the friends' handwriting was similar.

  • Keats's December — Learn more about the important December in particular when Keats wrote this poem: December 1817, when he was just about to make huge poetic and intellectual leaps.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by John Keats

  • A thing of beauty is a joy for ever (from Endymion)

  • Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art

  • La Belle Dame sans Merci

  • Lamia

  • Ode on a Grecian Urn

  • Ode on Indolence

  • Ode on Melancholy

  • Ode to a Nightingale

  • Ode to Psyche

  • On First Looking into Chapman's Homer

  • On Seeing the Elgin Marbles

  • On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again

  • On the Grasshopper and Cricket

  • On the Sea

  • The Eve of St. Agnes

  • This living hand, now warm and capable

  • To Autumn

  • To Sleep

  • When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be