Chapters
As You Like It, the play featuring this song, is both a fan favourite and one of the most heavily criticised of Shakespeare's entire body of work. It ranks as one of his most-oft-performed comedies - hence its popularity. But the literary types don't seem to like it. In fact, George Bernard Shaw contended that it was a puff piece. According to him, it was surely meant solely to entertain, being absent of Shakespeare's typical artistry.
But is this play only puff? Is there truly no substance to it? Why does Amiens, a minor character in the play, sing this song? His role is to tie disparate story elements together and give everything context. Simply by parsing Amiens' song, we find this play has depth aplenty:
- Blow Blow Thou Winter Wind contrasts the cruelty of winter to that of humankind
- the cold winter wind is less deceitful than humans who would smile to your face and smite you when you turn your back
- the bitter, freezing sky is mild compared to the bitterness of a friend's betrayal
- the seemingly jolly refrain highlights that, to most people, love is a folly and friendship is a lie
We don't know what the Bard had in mind when he penned the play. He may well have meant for it to be fluff, something to entertain the masses while he worked on more ponderous - more 'artistic' oeuvres.
If we really wanted to be fanciful, we might even equate it with the Dr Who episode where Shakespeare writes Loves Labours Won to prevent a calamity. Or we could just analyse this work and draw our own conclusions. Whether you prefer in-person or online lessons, an English tutor can provide convenient learning options
Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind Overview
This song appears in Act 2, Scene 7 of the play. By that point, all of the main characters have experienced betrayal and deceit. They congregate in the Forest of Arden, and each one is dejected. Jaques, a lord in Duke Senior's exiled court, then urges Amiens to lighten the mood with a song.
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Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind by William Shakespeare
Blow, blow, thou winter wind
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship if feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.
Freeze, freeze thou bitter sky,
That does not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As a friend remembered not.
Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.
About Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind by William Shakespeare
As noted above, this poem is actually a song sung by Amiens, in the Shakespeare play "As You Like It". Amiens' character contributes very little to the play's action, but he sings two songs which help clarify the plot and key themes. We'd be hard-pressed to talk about how this song came about, let alone what inspired such harsh yet jolly lyrics. That runs contrary to Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade. We know exactly how that poem came about.
Amiens is a lord who chose to follow Duke Senior, who was banished by his brother. In this song, Amiens comments on how human insolence and lack of appreciation are more bitter than anything the winter could deliver. This poem reflects the harm and misery those closest to us can inflict. At the beginning of the poem/song, Amiens speaks of the bitter cold winter wind. The wind can be unkind and blow strong but it isn't as cruel as human society.
In the second half of the song, Amiens speaks of his friends, and how they seem to have forgotten everything he had done for them in the past. Although the wind is bitter and could cause him to freeze, it's not as cutting as the behaviour of his friends. Amiens warns us that friendship is a sham, that it's only a pretence. And, by extension, loving must be reduced to a folly.
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Major Themes
This is a poem of betrayal without even the benefit of love to precede it. Duke Senior's court in the Forest of Arden consists of people rudely betrayed, in friendship and by family. So profound and universal is this experience that the poem advises one should not even attempt love.
However, it does end on a happy note. It suggests that 'This life is most jolly' - meaning life away from those who might betray them. On a broader scope, as the play progresses, we find that all of the conditions that set up the various betrayals were reversed. And that love does indeed find its intended recipients. But not as grimly as in Porphyria's Lover.
Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind Language Usage
Shakespeare is known for nothing if not the clever use of English. His name is practically synonymous with the sonnet; he was a master of stylised language. In his early writings, we find lots of phrases and constructions conventional in his day. They didn't necessarily fit with his characters' personae or, indeed, the plays themselves. He soon abandoned convention and started exploring novel uses for English words.
In Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind, he makes ample use of alliteration. The title itself provides two examples of such - first with B and then with W. And just imagine the poor thespian who had to deliver the line 'Though thou the waters warp'!
But the Bard doesn't stop at alliterating as many first letters as possible. He sprinkles consonance liberally throughout this poem/song. Unlike alliteration - a quick succession of same consonants, consonance entails using the same letter in one line but not right after one another. The line 'As a friend remembered not' is a particularly brilliant example of such.
Apostrophe is a way writers can permit their characters to directly address some quality or intangible element. In this poem, Shakespeare addresses wind in the imperative, urging it to blow. And the bitter sky, he commands to 'Freeze, freeze'. Apostrophe allows actors to engage with an invisible party while still playing to the audience.
Let's consider how Amiens delivers his bitter verdict of disloyal friends. He doesn't contain one thought to one verse. Instead, each idea carries over two lines. Enjambment propels the reader (or singer) forward. Used here, it creates the impression that disappointments must also bleed over.
Simile is perhaps the greatest linguistic tool this poem contains. The winter wind is cold but humans are colder. The entire work is arguably one long simile, written in an ABAB rhyme scheme. This poem's neatness contrasts dramatically with Lord Byron's When We Two Parted and its carefully crafted unevenness.
Fun Facts About The Play "As You Like It"
As noted in this article's introduction, how William Shakespeare got the idea for this comedy is not known. Equally uncertain is when it first hit the stage. We know that it was originally published in his First Folio of comedies, histories and tragedies. It might have been seen as fluffy in the past but today, scholars of gender studies increasingly appreciate it.
Heroine Rosalind and her cousin Celia encounter many memorable characters. One such is Jaques, who gives many of Shakespeare's most famous speeches. Even if not a fan of the Bard, you've surely heard of "All the world's a stage" and "A fool! A fool! I met a fool in the forest". But that's not what makes Rosalind and Celia so remarkable.
In Shakespeare's days, women were not allowed on stage. Men in drag played all female roles. So Rosalind and Celia were men playing women. But the story compels them to dress up as men, meaning a man in drag now has to dress as a man. And then, we add the Ganymede character who, at one point, claims to be Rosalind. The end result is a fourfold gender deception of a man dressing as a woman who dresses as a male to impersonate a female.
One of the key themes of the play is injustice done to individuals by their families - Duke Senior is betrayed by his younger brother and Orlando is bullied by his older brother. The play is also the origin of the phrase "too much of a good thing". Rosalind says "Why then, can one desire too much of a good thing? Come sister, you shall be the priest and marry us. Give me your hand, Orlando. What do you say, sister?" But here, we might echo all of the 'fluff' criticism. For all of it's profound ideas, in the end, everyone marries the one they love.
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