On Snow
From Heaven I fall, though from earth I begin,No lady alive can show such a skin.I'm bright as an angel, and light as a feather,But heavy and dark, when you squeeze me together.Though candour and truth in my aspect I bear,Yet many poor creatures I help to ensnare.Though so much of Heaven appears in my make,The foulest impressions I easily take.My parent and I produce one another,The mother the daughter, the daughter the mother.
Words in this poem
- candour n.
- Whiteness; brightness; (as applied to moral conditions) usullied purity; innocence. [L. candor, fr. candëre; cf. F. candeur. See candid.]
- ensnare v. t.
- To catch in a snare. See Insnare.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On Snow is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #13621; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Jonathan Swift, On Snow, in Poems, Volume II (1710–1745), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13621, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems/on-snow.html, id L09268.
Form and metre
On Snow is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 82% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.8 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in anapaestic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABBCCDDEE beginA · skinA · featherB · togetherB · bearC · ensnareC · makeD · takeD · anotherE · motherE
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against anapaestic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| From Heaven I fall, though from earth I begin, | 10 | ·/······˘/ |
| No lady alive can show such a skin. | 10 | ·/˘˘/····· |
| I'm bright as an angel, and light as a feather, | 12 | ····/˘····/˘ |
| But heavy and dark, when you squeeze me together. | 12 | ·/˘······˘/˘ |
| Though candour and truth in my aspect I bear, | 11 | ·/˘····/··· |
| Yet many poor creatures I help to ensnare. | 10 | ·/·/˘···˘/ |
| Though so much of Heaven appears in my make, | 10 | ····/˘/··· |
| The foulest impressions I easily take. | 10 | ·/˘˘/˘·/˘· |
| My parent and I produce one another, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/˘ |
| The mother the daughter, the daughter the mother. | 12 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘·/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.