0
Maple Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

like winter in July

Don't just let life pass you by like winter in July.
What does winter in July mean? And by the way, do you prefer to call this figure of speech a simile or a metaphor?
  

Top answer

Well, I'll reword my question. In our culture, we know the metaphor of "snow in June", which is used to describe a great grievance or wrong, like an innocent person is sentenced to death. So now my question is what winter in July describes in your English speaking world .

— Maple

  • Well, I'll reword my question.
  • In our culture, we know the metaphor of "snow in June", which is used to describe a great grievance or wrong, like an innocent person is sentenced to death.
  • So now my question is what winter in July describes in your English speaking world .
  • ) Thanks in advance.
Free · every Monday

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.

8 Answers
0
Well, I'll reword my question.
In our culture, we know the metaphor of "snow in June", which is used to describe a great grievance or wrong, like an innocent person is sentenced to death.
So now my question is what winter in July describes in your English speaking world. (To be ungrateful to a good time?)

Thanks in advance.
0
0
Hi Maple,

I'm not familiar with the expression "Winter in July" and perhaps no one else is either. I had never heard "Snow in June" before either, so I'm glad to know that meaning.

If you forced me to guess, I would say that it meant things being the opposite of what you'd exect (unless you lived in the Southern hemisphere, of course!) but I really don't know. Is it in a song, or
0
0
Knowing that it's not familiar to your native English ears is gains. Thank you very much.[F]
Yes, that's a song performed by Sarah Brightman: http://www.haahoo.com/blog/index.php/uid-143305-action-viewspace-itemid-7927
0
0
I know this is an old post but I stumbled across it looking for something else. "Winter in July" (as reffered to in the song) relates to a nuclear winter.
0
0

I was looking for the meaning of the lyric and bumped into this post a decade later lol. I've been thinking for hours after I listened to the song and my hypothesis is that the hint for meaning of "Winter in July" lies in the earlier phase, "don't just let life pass you by". It's like you have only experiencing Spring (beginning of life) up until June, there is Summer and Autumn for you to enj

0
0

I believe it refers to life being a series of fleeting moments, and each moment lost can never be recovered. Not dissimilar to the old Kansas song, "Dust in the wind". Just my thoughts. Michael

0
0

I believe it is an analogy, much like "dust in the wind", "a whiter shade of pale", "against the wind", or even "some where over the rainbow". Kind of the point of an enduring song, it's the little extra something to think about that helps it endure. Michael

0
0

Winter (in the UK where the song originated) is a season commonly associated with coldness, sadness, misery, bleakness, grey, muddy colours, short days, long nights and similar.

July (in the UK) is a month commonly associated with the sun, brightness, warmth, heat wave, vivid colours, happiness, fun, long days, short nights and similar.

With that in mind, "a bleak season (winter)

0

Related Questions