Page 3 - moodle

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.

Each line runs into the next –enjambment(Poetic device) - so giving the idea of build-up which
goes hand in hand with the rising iambic beat (see metrical analysis below).

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 anapaestic feet.
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 anapaest first foot.

Literary Devices in Dust of Snow - Rhyme, Alliteration, Assonance and
Internal Rhyme

1. The full rhyme endings are quite straightforward:
crow/snow....

mood/rued....and
tie things up tightly.

Internal rhyme and other devices help bring texture and resonance to certain sounds, as well
as interconnections.

2. Internal Rhyme and Assonance

Note that way echoes with day and in between come change and saved.
And shook and dust.

Also on/of/hemlock/Of
3. Rhyme Scheme- ababcdcd

4. Alliteration
Has given my heart

And saved some part