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Ralph Waldo Emerson - The Snow-Storm

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.

Added: on January 26th, 2006 at 11:19 AM | Viewed: 6082 times | Comments and analysis of The Snow-Storm by Ralph Waldo Emerson Comments (8)


The Snow-Storm - Comments and Information

Poet: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Poem: The Snow-Storm

Comment 8 of 8, added on March 4th, 2006 at 4:29 PM.

This poem is amazing.
Emerson, like many other transcendentalists, writes of nature prasingly. In "The Snow-storm," he does not only praise nature's work, but he also depicts that man cannot compete with or control nature. "The mad wind's night-work" is "so fanciful, so savage," yet "nought cares he / For number or proportion," proving himself of a much higher status than man who works so long and plans so hard to create his own "slow structures" of which nature can construct, "stone by stone," in only a day. The "farmer sighs" because after viewing what nature has created of his lands and home, he realizes that his only choice is to stay with his "housemates… / Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed / In a tumultuous privacy or storm."

Deborah from China
Comment 7 of 8, added on February 28th, 2006 at 4:19 PM.

emerson shows that man has to do what he feels whenever he feels like it. The title the snow storm shows that really well. a storm can come and go as it pleases and that is what emerson is suggesting. don't do what people expect or think you should do. this is a common theme among other transcendetalists.

diva from United States
Comment 6 of 8, added on January 26th, 2006 at 11:19 AM.

this is on crazy poem ithink that this dude must have been on sume kind of drugs when he wrote it. i have studied many of the poems be emerson and i feel like he must have a huge stock of drugs that he did all the time.

man of the world from United States

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