EXPLANATION Class 10 Poem 1 Dust of Snow By Robert Frost

 Class 10 First Flight Poem 1 Dust of Snow By Robert Frost 

The way a crow Shook down on me 

The dust of snow From a hemlock tree 

Word meanings Shook- shake Hemlock- a poisonous tree with small white flowers The poem is set in a scene where the poet is in a bad mood and is walking by a tree, a hemlock tree. Hemlock tree is a poisonous tree. As he passes by, a crow happens to throw some snow dust on him. Whether it falls on his head or shoulders is unknown as there is no specific mention in the poem. Also, the readers are left in doubt about the bird’s specific action. Whether the crow was landing, shivering with cold, re adjusting itself on the branch or taking off, it happened to send some particles of snow upon the author. Here, the two agents of nature, the hemlock tree and the crow are signifiers of sadness and gloom just like the poet’s mood was in the opening scene. 

Has given my heart A change of mood 

And saved some part Of a day I had rued. 

Rued- held in regret For reasons unknown, the author was having a terrible day. But the falling of the snow on his head lifted his mood instantly. He had already spent his day in a bad mood but the rest of it was saved by the crow and the hemlock tree. Generally, hemlock tree and crow are used for negative references but the poet used them beautifully to portray that inauspicious things can bring joy and happiness too. One must not take things for granted and should be open and accept whichever way the nature chooses to bless us.

Dust of Snow Literary Devices 

i.Rhyme Scheme- abab cdcd Alliteration- the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. The instances of alliteration are as follows- i.Has given my heart ii. And saved some part ii.inversion - when the structure of a sentence is changed by the poet to create rhyme, this poetic license is called inversion. In stanza 1, inversion can be seen. iii. assonance - the prominence of a vowel sound throughout a line is called assonance. In stanza 1, line 2 - “Shook down on me” - ‘o’ sound is prominent. iv. enjambment - when the same sentence continues to the next line without the use of any punctuation marks, it is called enjambment. It has been used thorughout the poem.