aww hell...I have to interpret another poem

[EmperorNero]

I suck at poems - I find them incredibly hard to understand. some of you guys are good at this, pleeeasseee help. What are the theme, tone and language?

The First Snowfall
by James Russel Lowell

The snow had begun in the gleaming.
And busily all the night
Had been heaping field and highway
With a silence deep and white.


Every pine and fir and hemlock
Were ermine too dear for an earl,
And the poorest twig on the elm-tree
Was ridged inch-deep with pearl.


From sheds new-roofed with Carrara*
Came Chanticlear's* muffled crow;
The stiff rails softened to swan's down,
And still fluttered down the snow.


I stood and watched by the window
The noiseless work of the sky,
And the sudden flurries of snowbirds,
Like brown leaves whirling by.


I thought of a mound in sweet Auburn*
Where a little headstone stood;
How the flakes were folding it gently,
As did robins the babes in the wood.


Up spoke our own little Mable,
Saying, "Father, who makes it snow?"
And I told of the good All-Father
Who cares for us here below.


Again I looked at the snowfall,
And thought of the leaden sky
That arched o'er our first great sorrow,
When that mound was heaped so high.


I remembered the gradual patience
That fell from the cloud like snow,
Flake by flake, healing and hiding
The sear of our deep-plunged woe.


And again to the child I whispered,
"The snow that husheth all,
Darling, the merciful Father
Alone can make it fall!"


Then, with eyes that saw not, I kissed her;
And she, kissing back, could not know
That my kiss was given to her sister,
Folded close under deepening snow.

-----------

Carrara - fine, white marble
Chanticleer's - referring to a rooster
Auburn - Mt. Auburn Cemetary in Cambridge, Massachusetts

 

[abracadabra1]

winter...how bout that eh?

 

[Passions]

its about the first snowfall.

 

[Moonbeam]

Here is a poem by a Japaneese master written on the death of his son that says the same thing.

This little dew drop world

It may be only a dew drop

And yet and yet

A Noble went to a Sufi and said, "Give me a blessing."

The Sufi said, "May your father die before you, and you before your son."

Trust in the force Nero. You only think you suck at poems. Forget about being graded. Forget about a right answer, a correct interpretation to a poem. The person who wrote it felt something; that's why he or she wrote it. If and what you feel about it, how you react to it is all that really matters. When it comes to knowing what the poem means to you, you are the world's formost living authority.

 

[EmperorNero]

<< Forget about being graded. Forget about a right answer, a correct interpretation to a poem. >>



no can do...if I said that the poem is really about a tormented schoolbus driver in the summer, I'll probably end up with an F.

 

[Shuxclams]

UGH! Excellent stuff there, gave me the chills! It is about losing a child and the snow is covering the fresh grave, and instead of kissing that child the sister gets tham as she is all thats left. Its a heartbreaker.....



<< I thought of a mound in sweet Auburn*
Where a little headstone stood;
How the flakes were folding it gently,
As did robins the babes in the wood. >>


The father is standing and recollecting



<< Up spoke our own little Mable,
Saying, &quot;Father, who makes it snow?&quot;
And I told of the good All-Father
Who cares for us here below >>


a found memory of telling...



<< Again I looked at the snowfall,
And thought of the leaden sky
That arched o'er our first great sorrow,
When that mound was heaped so high. >>


This seems to have happened recently.....



<< I remembered the gradual patience
That fell from the cloud like snow,
Flake by flake, healing and hiding
The sear of our deep-plunged woe >>


Ouch, nice wording....



<< And again to the child I whispered,
&quot;The snow that husheth all,
Darling, the merciful Father
Alone can make it fall!&quot; >>


A wish or blessing to his daughter,



<< Then, with eyes that saw not, I kissed her;
And she, kissing back, could not know
That my kiss was given to her sister,
Folded close under deepening snow >>



this is a goodbye and sorrow for he only has one child and &quot;that kiss was given to her sister&quot; in place of the one he longs to give her. I guess being a parent I understand the love you have for a child, and the elequence in this poem gets to me. Thanks for sharing that.


SHUX

 

[EmperorNero]

I got most of that already, but thanks shuxclam. my teacher is extremely anal. for example, I had to do The Chambered Nautilus...here's the first stanza:



<<
The Chambered Nautilus
This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
Sails the unshadowed main?
The venturous bark that flings
On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings.
And coral reefs lie bare,
Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.
>>



and with that first stanza, my teacher interpreted that the nautilus inspired many poets: both Greek and modern day. how she got that, I don't know...but apparently, she wants me to be as good with the snowfall poem. I need help from english majors who can do some serious anal probing in the poem. and this tip might help: james russel lowell, the guy who wrote the snowfall poem was a romantic. as in he was very in tuned with nature: romantics prefer the use of intuition and feelings over rational thinking. a few traits about romantic writers are that they tend to write about natural things, see civilized life as corrupted and nature as pure, and they convey a lot of emotions through their work.

 

[Moonbeam]

if you said that the poem is really about a tormented schoolbus driver in the summer, you wouldn't have trusted in the force, now would you. The fact that you know a wrong answer when you see one speeks volumes, if you but listened.