The Snow-Storm Analysis

Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air
Hides hill and woods, the river, and the heaven,
And veils the farmhouse at the garden's end.
The sled and traveller stopped, the courier's feet
Delated, all friends shut out, the housemates sit
Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed
In a tumultuous privacy of storm.
Come see the north wind's masonry.
Out of an unseen quarry evermore
Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer
Curves his white bastions with projected roof
Round every windward stake, or tree, or door.
Speeding, the myriad-handed, his wild work
So fanciful, so savage, nought cares he
For number or proportion. Mockingly,
On coop or kennel he hangs Parian wreaths;
A swan-like form invests the hiddden thorn;
Fills up the famer's lane from wall to wall,
Maugre the farmer's sighs; and at the gate
A tapering turret overtops the work.
And when his hours are numbered, and the world
Is all his own, retiring, as he were not,
Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art
To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone,
Built in an age, the mad wind's night-work,
The frolic architecture of the snow.

.: Crazy Imagery :.

Blew my mind the imagery and sound devices! Alliteration, assonance, slant rhymes, masculine rhymes, etc! Awesome poem!

| Posted on 2008-03-17 | by a guest

.: Romanticism :.

This poem is describing nature as a veil to humans and not just the snow although the storm is used in this particular incident. ALL nature is veiled to humans. It takes self reliance and a sense of nature as a higher power to truly tap into the beauty of nature. Emerson makes the snow seem a horrible savage because it sweeps in and causes everyone to be shut indoors in solitude but he shows that when the storm is over the snow can create beautiful artwork of nature.

| Posted on 2008-01-24 | by a guest