The way a
crow
Shook down on
me
The dust of
snow
From a
hemlock tree
Has given my
heart
A change of
mood
And saved
some part
Of a day I
had rued.
Robert
Frost
Robert Frost and Dust of Snow
Dust of Snow is only eight lines long and seems to
be the simplest of short poems. With full end rhyme and short lines on the
surface the two stanzas appear to be nothing more than a snapshot of a trivial
event concerning a crow, a tree, snow and a human being.
Yet, as always with Robert Frost,
you know that beneath the surface there will develop deeper worlds of meaning
and possibility. As Frost himself wrote:
'It is what is beyond that makes
poetry - what is unsaid in any work of art. Its unsaid part is its best part.'
So it is with this tiny poem. The
reader might take only fifteen seconds to recite it but once finished there
could well be several hours spent on, or several ways of, working out what the
message is, if any.
Dust of Snow has as its main themes:
·
communication between nature and humans.
·
nature healing and helping with negative human emotions.
·
the significance of small natural events
First published in 1923 in the
book New Hampshire, this little poem has remained popular because it juxtaposes
two fundamentals - human complexity and animal simplicity - in such a compact
and symbolic form.
The other outstanding feature
of Dust
of Snow is that it is so accessible, like many of Frost's more
popular poems, the reader being taken under that same tree to experience the
crow and the snow.
And yet, as the analysis will
show, there's much more going on in what appear to be lines of simple,
straightforward language.
Dust of Snow
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
Analysis of Dust of Snow
Dust of Snow with its short neat form, rhyming lines
and rhythmic beat is simplicity itself. It reflects the rather bleak,
minimalist imagery.
There's the speaker, the man,
under a tree. It's probably winter, there's snow on the tree, an evergreen pine
called a hemlock, and a crow has happened to send some snow dust down on the
man.
Whether it falls on to his head
or down his neck is unknown because it's not really relevant to the poem. What
is important is the way that crow makes it happen, but once
again, the reader is left to imagine the bird's specific action.
Whether it be the crow preening,
merely shaking, flying off, or landing, or readjusting its feet on a branch,
somehow a light dusting of snow is the result, and it lands on the speaker.
The actual word is shook,
so it could be that the crow is shivering in the snowy tree. For the speaker
this must have come out of the blue; the crow's action caused an unexpected
fall of snow dust.
·
The first stanza is the speaker setting the scene but
leaving a little bit of guesswork for the reader. The question has to be asked:
In what way precisely did that crow shake down the dust of snow?
·
In a comical way? In a mischievous way? In an indifferent
way?
Each line runs into the next -
enjambment - so giving the idea of buildup which goes hand in hand with the
rising iambic beat (see metrical analysis below).
So the first stanza flows into
the second which is the more intimate part of the poem as the speaker begins to
confirm a change of mood. The crow, traditionally given a bad
name as a harbinger of doom and fear, becomes a catalyst for positive change.
The speaker, because of the snow
dust falling on him, finds himself partially relieved - his day just got a
whole lot better - the event somehow allowing him to see life from a different
angle.
There are two crucial words Frost
uses here: rued and saved, the former meaning to regret something
which often cannot be undone and the latter meaning to rescue or keep safe.
The word saved is also associated
with religion - being saved (by Christ) - for example, but this doesn't really
fit the circumstances of the speaker. Why? Because only part of a day is saved,
not his soul.
If the figurative heart changes mood,
then this is quite a profound shift nevertheless and it illustrates the power
that nature sometimes has over we human beings.
The speaker could well have been
stressed out over something, gone for a short walk to try and think things
through. Then whilst under the tree...down came the dust of snow to alleviate
the symptoms.
·
If anything there is a strong case for irony and comedy
in this poem.
·
Picture the troubled speaker, all serious, self-absorbed,
worrying about what had happened to him a few hours earlier.
·
Suddenly there is the crow flapping from a high branch;
then down comes the freezing white dust to land straight on the poker-faced
speaker.
And isn't it ironic that a
creature usually linked with negative aspects of life should become the bringer
of positive change?
The message is clear enough.
Sometimes seemingly insignificant natural events do bring about change. Being
outdoors in nature, with all its unpredictability, can benefit anyone, anywhere
at any time.
What Is the Meter of the Poem Dust of Snow?
The dominant meter (metre in
British English) of this poem is iambic dimeter, although there are two lines
with anapestic feet. An iamb is a foot consisting of one unstressed syllable,
followed by a stressed one, so the beat is daDUM daDUM. An
anapaest consists of two unstressed syllables plus a third stressed.
Let's take a closer look at each
line of Dust of Snow:
The way / a crow
Shook down / on me
The dust /of snow
From
a hem / lock tree
Has giv / en my heart
A change /of mood
And saved / some part
Of
a day / I had rued.
The first stanza has three lines
of iambic dimeter, four syllables, except the fourth line which has an anapest
first foot so has that dadaDUM beat. This opening anapaest is balanced
by the anapaest of line five in the second stanza, much like an echo of a
changed heart beat itself.
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