POEM 2 – DUST OF SNOW For most of us, poetry is the first thing we read, and it’s a perfect place to start with. Keeping Dust of Snow in mind, draw a beautiful scenery describing the importance of Nature. Also describe objects, animal or persons whose proportions have been changed or altered.
Answers
Answer:
The poem is set in a scene where the poet is in a bad mood and is walking by a tree, a hemlock tree. Hemlock tree is a poisonous tree. As he passes by, a crow happens to throw some snow dust on him. Whether it falls on his head or shoulders is unknown as there is no specific mention in the poem. Also, the readers are left in doubt about the bird’s specific action. Whether the crow was landing, shivering with cold, re adjusting itself on the branch or taking off, it happened to send some particles of snow upon the author. Here, the two agents of nature, the hemlock tree and the crow are signifiers of sadness and gloom just like the poet’s mood was in the opening scene.
Answer:
Dust of snow: fine particles of snow.
Watching the fall of dust of snow is very enjoying in the high altitudes.
Hemlock Tree: a poisonous tree with small white flowers.
Hemlock is a poisonous tree found in mountain areas
key points
The poem describes a very simple happening in very simple words.
It tells us that sometimes even a small incident may prove to be of a larger significance.
The poet is upset in the beginning of the poem but a small incident of falling of snow changes his mood totally.
In the end of the poem the poet feels relaxed and thankful to the nature for saving his day from being wasted.
summary
The poet is upset and sitting under the hemlock tree. Suddenly a crow sitting on the tree shakes the tree and the fine particles of snow from tree falls on the poet. The soft and cold touch of snow changes the poet’s mood from sad to happy. He starts feeling soothed and refresh. In this way a simple moment proves to be very significant and saves rest of the day of poet from being wasted and held in regret.
The black crow is commonly a symbol of death and fear.
Since the crow is not associated with goodness, it is ironic that in this poem, it is doing a good deed by shaking off the snow.
Robert Frost didn’t choose to use an oak, maple or pine tree. No, instead he chose the hemlock tree which is usually associated with poison and toxicity. Anyway, the beautiful snow that adorns the poisonous hemlock tree’s branches is shaken off by a scary crow.
Robert Frost uses the elements of the fearsome crow and poisonous Hemlock tree to do something good – shake the white, pure snow off the branches. This good act lifts the suicidal person’s spirits causing him to change his mind about killing himself. The small act causes the man to have an enlightened insight.
We have a poisonous Hemlock tree covered in pure, white snow and a man who is depressed, planning to kill himself and walking under the tree. At that precise moment, the black crow of death shakes the pure, good snow onto the man. All that goodness helps the man to change his mind about killing himself. Instead, he decides to live, forget the regret and sorrow to enable healing.
The poem, Dust of Snow by Robert Frost, reiterates that the little things in life can make huge changes in our future. It also shows that if we can take the hard times of life in stride, eventually something will happen to change our situation into happier times. The simple things we do for others can make all the difference. Just think about those random acts of kindness we do and how much they brighten a person’s day and sometimes change their future.
Noticing and appreciating all the small things in life will make our life happier. It will also cause us to have a spirit that is willing to change and therefore succeed.