Analysis of The Spirit Of The Snow
Denis Florence MacCarthy 1817 (Dublin) – 1882 (Blackrock, Dublin)
The night brings forth the morn-
Of the cloud is lightning born;
From out the darkest earth the brightest roses grow.
Bright sparks from black flints fly,
And from out a leaden sky
Comes the silvery-footed Spirit of the Snow.
The wondering air grows mute,
As her pearly parachute
Cometh slowly down from heaven, softly floating to and fro;
And the earth emits no sound,
As lightly on the ground
Leaps the silvery-footed Spirit of the Snow.
At the contact of her tread,
The mountain's festal head,
As with chaplets of white roses, seems to glow;
And its furrowed cheek grows white
With a feeling of delight,
At the presence of the Spirit of the Snow.
As she wendeth to the vale,
The longing fields grow pale-
The tiny streams that vein them cease to flow;
And the river stays its tide
With wonder and with pride,
To gaze upon the Spirit of the Snow.
But little doth she deem
The love of field or stream-
She is frolicsome and lightsome as the roe;
She is here and she is there,
On the earth or in the air,
Ever changing, floats the Spirit of the Snow.
Now a daring climber, she
Mounts the tallest forest tree-
Out along the giddy branches doth she go;
And her tassels, silver-white,
Down swinging through the night,
Mark the pillow of the Spirit of the Snow.
Now she climbs the mighty mast,
When the sailor boy at last
Dreams of home in his hammock down below
There she watches in his stead
Till the morning sun shines red,
Then evanishes the Spirit of the Snow.
Or crowning with white fire.
The minster's topmost spire
With a glory such as sainted foreheads show;
She teaches fanes are given
Thus to lift the heart to heaven,
There to melt like the Spirit of the Snow.
Now above the loaded wain,
Now beneath the thundering train,
Doth she hear the sweet bells tinkle and the snorting engine blow;
Now she flutters on the breeze,
Till the branches of the trees
Catch the tossed and tangled tresses of the Spirit of the Snow.
Now an infant's balmy breath
Gives the spirit seeming death,
When adown her pallid features fair Decay's damp dew-drops flow;
Now again her strong assault
Can make an army halt,
And trench itself in terror 'gainst the Spirit of the Snow.
At times with gentle power,
In visiting some bower,
She scarce will hide the holly's red, the blackness of the sloe;
But, ah! her awful might,
When down some Alpine height
The hapless hamlet sinks before the Spirit of the Snow.
On a feather she floats down
The turbid rivers brown,
Down to meet the drifting navies of the winter-freighted floe;
Then swift o'er the azure walls
Of the awful waterfalls,
Where Niagara leaps roaring, glides the Spirit of the Snow.
With her flag of truce unfurled,
She makes peace o'er all the world-
Makes bloody battle cease awhile, and war's unpitying woe;
Till, its hollow womb within,
The deep dark-mouthed culverin
Encloses, like a cradled child, the Spirit of the Snow.
She uses in her need
The fleetly-flying steed-
Now tries the rapid reindeer's strength, and now the camel slow;
Or, ere defiled by earth,
Unto her place of birth,
Returns upon the eagle's wing the Spirit of the Snow.
Oft with pallid figure bowed,
Like the Banshee in her shroud,
Doth the moon her spectral shadow o'er some silent gravestone throw;
Then moans the fitful wail,
And the wanderer grows pale,
Till at morning fades the phantom of the Spirit of the Snow.
In her ermine cloak of state
She sitteth at the gate
Of some winter-prisoned princess in her palace by the Po;
Who dares not to come forth
Till back unto the North
Flies the beautiful besieger-the Spirit of the Snow.
In her spotless linen hood,
Like the other sisterhood,
She braves the open cloister when the psalm sounds sweet and low;
When some sister's bier doth pass
From the minster and the Mass,
Soon to sink into the earth, like the Spirit of the Snow.
But at times so full of joy,
She will play with girl and boy,
Fly from out their tingling fingers, like white fireballs on the foe;
She will burst in feathery flakes,
And the ruin that she makes
Will but wake the crackling laughter of the Spirit of the Snow.
Or in furry mantle drest,
She will fondle on her breast
The embryo buds awaiting the near Spring's mysterious throe;
So fondly that the first
Of the blossoms that outburst
Will be called the beauteous daughter of the Spirit of the Snow.
Ah! would that we were s
Scheme | AABCCB DDBEEB FFBGGB HHBIIB JJBKKB LLBGGB MMBFFB NXBOOB PPBQQB RRBSSB NNBGGB TTBUUB VVBXAB WWBXXB YYBHHB ZZB1 1 B 2 2 B3 3 B 4 4 B5 5 B DXB6 6 B X |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 011101 1011101 110101010101 111111 0110101 101001010101 0100111 101010 101011101010101 0010111 110101 101001010101 101101 01011 1111110111 0110111 1010101 10101010101 111101 010111 0101111111 0010111 110011 1101010101 110111 011111 11101101 1110111 1011001 10101010101 1010101 1010101 10101010111 001101 110101 10101010101 1110101 1010111 1110110101 1110011 1010111 11010101 1101110 0111 1010111011 1101110 11101110 1111010101 1010101 10101001 111011100010101 1110101 1010101 101010101010101 1110101 1010101 1101010111111 1010101 111101 01010101010101 1111010 0100110 11110101010101 110101 11111 01010101010101 1010111 01101 11101010101011 11100101 101010 10101101010101 1011101 11110101 110101010111 1110101 01111 11011010101 110001 01101 1101011010101 11111 100111 01010101010101 1110101 1001001 1010111011011 110101 0010011 111010101010101 0010111 11101 111010100010101 111111 111001 101001010101 0010101 1010100 11010101011101 1110111 1010001 11101011010101 1111111 1111101 1111100101110101 11101001 0010111 111010101010101 1010101 1110101 010101001101001 110101 101011 11101101010101 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 4,202 |
Words | 784 |
Sentences | 24 |
Stanzas | 20 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 1 |
Lines Amount | 115 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 170 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 39 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 3:59 min read
- 67 Views
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"The Spirit Of The Snow" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/42814/the-spirit-of-the-snow>.
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