A Snow-Song
Does the snow fall at sea?Yes, when the north winds blow,When the wild clouds fly low,Out of each gloomy wing,Silently glimmering,Over the stormy seaFalleth the snow.
Does the snow hide the sea?Nay, on the tossing plainsNever a flake remains;Drift never resteth there;Vanishing everywhere,Into the hungry seaFalleth the snow.
What means the snow at sea?Whirled in the veering blast,Thickly the flakes drive past;Each like a childish ghostWavers, and then is lost;In the forgetful seaFadeth the snow.
Words in this poem
- flake n.
- A paling; a hurdle. [prov. Eng.] [Cf. Icel. flaki, fleki, Dan. flage, D. vlaak.]
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- forgetful a.
- Apt to forget; easily losing remembrance; as, a forgetful man should use helps to strengthen his memory.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Snow-Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Henry Van Dyke, Project Gutenberg ebook #16229; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Van Dyke, A Snow-Song, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/a-snow-song.html, id L22756.
Form and metre
A Snow-Song is 21 lines in 3 stanzas of 7 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 ABBCCAB seaA · blowB · lowB · wingC · glimmeringC · seaA · snowB
- 2 ABBCCA- seaA · plainsB · remainsB · thereC · everywhereC · seaA · snow
- 3 ABB--A- seaA · blastB · pastB · ghost · lost · seaA · snow
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 iambic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Does the snow fall at sea? | 6 | ······ |
| Yes, when the north winds blow, | 6 | ······ |
| When the wild clouds fly low, | 6 | ······ |
| Out of each gloomy wing, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Silently glimmering, | 6 | /˘˘/˘˘ |
| Over the stormy sea | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Falleth the snow. | 4 | /˘·· |
| Does the snow hide the sea? | 6 | ······ |
| Nay, on the tossing plains | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Never a flake remains; | 6 | /˘··˘/ |
| Drift never resteth there; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Vanishing everywhere, | 6 | /˘˘/˘· |
| Into the hungry sea | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Falleth the snow. | 4 | /˘·· |
| What means the snow at sea? | 6 | ······ |
| Whirled in the veering blast, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Thickly the flakes drive past; | 6 | /˘···· |
| Each like a childish ghost | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Wavers, and then is lost; | 6 | /˘···· |
| In the forgetful sea | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Fadeth the snow. | 4 | ···· |
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.