Snow-flakes
Snow-flakes - context Summary
Composed During the Civil War
Longfellow's "Snow-flakes" uses the image of falling snow to register a quiet, communal grief. The poem personifies the air and sky as mourning, letting snow descend like a slow confession that reveals sorrow to fields and woods. Its restrained, elegiac mood reflects the national atmosphere when it was published in 1863, offering a winter tableau that externalizes inner and public despair.
Read Complete AnalysesOut of the bosom of the Air Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken, Over the woodlands brown and bare, Over the harvest-fields forsaken, Silent, and soft, and slow Descends the snow. Even as our cloudy fancies take Suddenly shape in some divine expression, Even as the troubled heart doth make In the white countenance confession The troubled sky reveals The grief it feels. This is the poem of the air, Slowly in silent syllables recorded; This is the secret of despair, Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded, Now whispered and revealed To wood and field.
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