Analysis

• "in the frosty season" - The poem is filled with imagery to do with winter and the end of the year as well as the end of the day.
• "The cottage windows" - Rural setting, sense of cosiness
• "twilight blaz’d," - There are images of warmth, contrasting the wintery scene and images of darkness. The verb “blaz’d suggests fire and comfort. This warmth reflects Wordsworth’s warm feelings when looking back on his childhood
• "It was, indeed, for all of us;" - The pronoun “us” give sense of communal or shared happiness between the boys and in the larger community.
• "It was a time of rapture:" - The use of the noun “rapture” suggests a joyous ecstasy and a time of celebration.
• "Proud and exalting, like an untir’d horse," - The simile of a “untir’d horse” gives the idea the boys are untamed, still wild at heart, with no fear and full of energy to discover the world.
• "We hiss’d along" - The poet uses verbs such as “flew” and “hissed” to show the movement and sounds of the boys, emphasising their skilful speed and their sense of freedom.
• "And woodland pleasures, the resounding horn," - Wordsworth summons up the idea of the hunt as the boys chase each other across the ice – the imagery is vivid due to his use of the senses.
• "Tinkled like iron" - More wintery images allows us to imagine how cold the evening is. The simile “tinkled like iron” emphasises how deeply frozen the countryside is yet it seems to make its own.
• "Of melancholy, not unnoticed, while the stars," - The idea of “melancholy” introduces us to a sense of sadness and an insight into Wordsworth’s nostalgia at these happier days of innocence which are now long passed. The tone seems almost wistful here, Wordsworth yearning for those simpler times of youth.
• "Eastward, were sparkling clear, and in the west the orange sky of evening died away." -The final image reminds us the day is ending and so is the year, and so did his childhood as he became an adult. The intensity of the orange sky and sparkling stars reflects the energy and

  vibrancy of youth, something that declines with the aging process.
• "Meanwhile, the precipices rang aloud," - The natural world is drawn as hard and frozen, but it has its own voice. The verb “rang” suggests the countryside is alive, almost with music.