Percy Bysshe Shelley

Dirge for the Year

Orphan Hours vs. Merry Hours

Shelley splits the personified hours into two groups with opposite emotional duties. The 'Orphan Hours' mourn (the year is dead), while 'Merry Hours' celebrate (the year merely sleeps). This tension between death and rest drives the entire poem.

I
Orphan Hours, the Year is dead,

Orphan Hours vs. Merry Hours

Shelley splits the personified hours into two groups with opposite emotional duties. The 'Orphan Hours' mourn (the year is dead), while 'Merry Hours' celebrate (the year merely sleeps). This tension between death and rest drives the entire poem.

Orphan Hours vs. Merry Hours

Shelley splits the personified hours into two groups with opposite emotional duties. The 'Orphan Hours' mourn (the year is dead), while 'Merry Hours' celebrate (the year merely sleeps). This tension between death and rest drives the entire poem.

Come and sigh, come and weep!
Merry Hours, smile instead,

Orphan Hours vs. Merry Hours

Shelley splits the personified hours into two groups with opposite emotional duties. The 'Orphan Hours' mourn (the year is dead), while 'Merry Hours' celebrate (the year merely sleeps). This tension between death and rest drives the entire poem.

For the Year is but asleep.
See, it smiles as it is sleeping,
Mocking your untimely weeping.
II

Earthquake simile—violent motion

Winter doesn't gently transition the year; it violently 'rocks a corse / In its coffin.' This grotesque image treats seasonal change as desecration, not natural renewal. The word 'corse' (corpse) is deliberately archaic and harsh.

As an earthquake rocks a corse
In its coffin in the clay,

Earthquake simile—violent motion

Winter doesn't gently transition the year; it violently 'rocks a corse / In its coffin.' This grotesque image treats seasonal change as desecration, not natural renewal. The word 'corse' (corpse) is deliberately archaic and harsh.

Earthquake simile—violent motion

Winter doesn't gently transition the year; it violently 'rocks a corse / In its coffin.' This grotesque image treats seasonal change as desecration, not natural renewal. The word 'corse' (corpse) is deliberately archaic and harsh.

So White Winter, that rough nurse,
Rocks the death-cold Year today;
Solemn Hours! wail aloud
For your mother in her shroud.

Year as feminine 'she'

The Year becomes 'your mother' (line 10) and later 'she will arise' (line 15). This maternal personification makes the cycle personal—not abstract seasonal change, but a mother's temporary death and promised resurrection.

III

Cradle vs. coffin parallel

Stanza III reverses the violence of Stanza II: now the same rocking motion becomes gentle, like a baby's cradle. Shelley uses identical structural logic ('As...So') to argue that the same force can mean death or birth depending on perspective.

As the wild air stirs and sways
The tree-swung cradle of a child,

Cradle vs. coffin parallel

Stanza III reverses the violence of Stanza II: now the same rocking motion becomes gentle, like a baby's cradle. Shelley uses identical structural logic ('As...So') to argue that the same force can mean death or birth depending on perspective.

Cradle vs. coffin parallel

Stanza III reverses the violence of Stanza II: now the same rocking motion becomes gentle, like a baby's cradle. Shelley uses identical structural logic ('As...So') to argue that the same force can mean death or birth depending on perspective.

So the breath of these rude days
Rocks the Year:—becalm and mild,

Becalm vs. rude days

The Year will 'arise / With new love within her eyes'—but only after being rocked by 'rude days.' Shelley insists renewal requires endurance through harshness, not comfort. The contradiction in 'becalm and mild' suggests paradox: rough treatment leads to peace.

Becalm vs. rude days

The Year will 'arise / With new love within her eyes'—but only after being rocked by 'rude days.' Shelley insists renewal requires endurance through harshness, not comfort. The contradiction in 'becalm and mild' suggests paradox: rough treatment leads to peace.

Trembling Hours, she will arise
With new love within her eyes.
IV
January gray is here,

Months as funeral procession

January, February, March, and April are not just time-markers but mourners with specific roles: sexton, bier-bearer, griever, weeper. May breaks the pattern by bringing flowers instead of grief—the turning point where mourning ends.

Months as funeral procession

January, February, March, and April are not just time-markers but mourners with specific roles: sexton, bier-bearer, griever, weeper. May breaks the pattern by bringing flowers instead of grief—the turning point where mourning ends.

Like a sexton by her grave;
February bears the bier,

Months as funeral procession

January, February, March, and April are not just time-markers but mourners with specific roles: sexton, bier-bearer, griever, weeper. May breaks the pattern by bringing flowers instead of grief—the turning point where mourning ends.

March with grief doth howl and rave,
And April weeps—but, ye Hours!

May's flowers—the real argument

The poem's final image isn't about winter or spring generically. 'May's fairest flowers' are the concrete proof that the Merry Hours were right: sleep, not death. The Hours are instructed to 'follow'—to trust the cycle despite the mourning.

Follow with May's fairest flowers.
Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

The Debate Over Seasonal Death

This poem is structured as an argument between two interpretations of winter: Is the year dead or sleeping? The Orphan Hours insist on death; the Merry Hours insist on sleep. Shelley doesn't resolve this debate—he repeats the opening stanza mid-poem, forcing readers to sit with the tension rather than choose a side.

The genius is in the similes. Stanza II uses an earthquake and coffin to make winter feel like desecration. Stanza III uses the same rocking motion—but applied to a cradle—to make it feel like nurture. Shelley proves the motion itself is neutral; only interpretation changes. The Year's fate depends on whether you believe in cycles (Merry Hours) or finality (Orphan Hours).

This matters because Shelley was writing during the Napoleonic Wars and political upheaval. The poem's insistence that death is 'but asleep' and that renewal follows mourning becomes a political statement: trust that tyranny and suffering are temporary, not permanent conditions.

Why the Months Matter More Than You'd Expect

Stanza IV abandons personified Hours and names actual months. This shift is crucial: Shelley moves from abstract philosophical debate to the concrete calendar. January is 'gray' and acts as a 'sexton' (grave-digger); February 'bears the bier' (coffin); March 'howls'; April 'weeps.' The progression is a funeral ritual.

But notice the break: 'And April weeps—but, ye Hours!' The 'but' introduces a turn. The months will continue their mourning (May, June, etc. are implied), but the Hours—the poem's audience—are told to 'follow with May's fairest flowers.' This is not passive acceptance. The Hours must actively choose to follow with flowers, transforming grief into celebration. The poem ends not with certainty but with a command: act as if renewal will come, and your action makes it true.