Snow-Flakes by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Snow falls silently over bare woods and abandoned harvest fields. The speaker compares its descent to thoughts taking shape and a troubled heart revealing itself, then imagines the snowfall as the air’s poem disclosing grief and hidden despair.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Nature Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Melancholic Poetry · 157 words
First lines
Out of the bosom of the Air, / Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken, / Over the woodlands brown and bare, / Over the harvest-fields forsaken, / Silent, and soft, and slow / Descends the snow.
Even as our cloudy fancies take / Suddenly shape in some divine expression, / Even as the troubled heart doth make / In the white countenance confession, / The troubled sky reveals / The grief it feels.
This is the poem of the air, / Slowly in silent syllables recorded; / This is the secret of despair, / Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded, / Now whispered and revealed / To wood and field.
Genres
- Nature Poetry — Falling snow over bare woodlands and forsaken harvest fields supplies the central scene.
- Lyric Poetry — Three rhymed stanzas move from observing snowfall to comparing it with the expression of troubled feelings.
- Melancholic Poetry — The speaker imagines snowfall as the disclosure of grief and despair long hidden in the sky.
Tags
snowfall · winter · grief · despair · personification
What this Textopian page supports
Snow-Flakes is listed on Textopian as a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Nature Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Melancholic Poetry
- Length: 157 words
- Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
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