Winter is good－his Hoar Delights 1
Italic flavor yield
To Intellects inebriate
With Summer, or the World－
Generic as a Quarry 5
And hearty－as a Rose－
Invited with Asperity
But welcome when he goes.
Italic flavor yield
To Intellects inebriate
With Summer, or the World－
Generic as a Quarry 5
And hearty－as a Rose－
Invited with Asperity
But welcome when he goes.
(F.1374/J.1316)
[1] Winter:: winter teal, a kind of duck. Hoar:: color of the teal's body. Delights:: winter teal is a common game bird, providing delights to hunters.
[2] Italic:: pertaining to ancient Italy or its tribes (OED 1a). Italic flavor:: "the street Jesting, and gossip" of the ducks.
[3] inebriate:: being intoxicated, by the jesting and gossip.
[4] With Summer, World:: a feeling of summer and world the emigrating ducks brought.
[5] Quarry:: any object of chase, aim, or attack (OED 3c), as a game bird.
[6] hearty:: satisfying to the appetite. Rose:: something wonderful on the table.
[7] asperity:: severity, roughness, of the hunters.
[8] welcome when he goes:: it's better these teals stay alive, not to be eaten.
But the Italian flavor of the street Jesting, and gossip, and incident is as unmistakable as the glow of the Italian atmosphere and the silver sheen of the olive hills of Tuscany in which the tale is set. ─ Harper's Magazine, Volume 26 (1863)
"Ornamental water fowl, consisting of black and white swans; Egyptian, Canada, China, bernicle, brent, and laughing geese, shieldrakes, pintail, wigeon, summer and winter teal; gadwall, Labrador, shovellers, golden eyed and dun divers; Carolina ducks, &c. &c, domesticated and pinioned." ─ Game Birds and Wild Fowl: Their Friends and Their Foes (1850)