My friend Tom calls me after a snow fall and recites from memory the first two stanzas of James Russell Lowell's
"The First Snow Fall". He went to school in the days when it was mandatory to memorize poetry. That was quite a long time ago and he still can recite the whole poem from memory. I'm impressed.
So for your enjoyment and as a comparison to Mary Oliver's snow poem below are the first two stanzas.
Note the meter and rhyme as compared to Oliver's free verse. I think both are beautiful.
The snow has begun in the gloaming,
And busily all the night.
Had been heaping field and highway
With a silence deep and white.
Every pine and fir and hemlock
Wore ermine too dear for an earl,
And the poorest twig on the elm tree
Was ridged inch deep with pearl.
We had to memorize poems at Canisius in the 70's. But still a long time ago.
ReplyDeleteGloaming and ermine had me scrambling for the dictionary!
Mike H