Blizzard

“Blizzard” is primarily a poem of personification. Inside her house, the speaker of the poem watches snow fall, giving it human and then animal characteristics to characterize what the snow reminds her of and what it feels like to be inside of it. These associations change throughout the poem much the way snow itself changes, and the tone is both peaceful and whimsical. The speaker’s view of what the snow is, or what it evokes for her, reflects the fact that the snow itself is changing and subsequently changing the landscape around her.

At first, she characterizes the snow as someone or something that has “forgotten / how to stop” (Lines 2-3) and is “stuttering / at the glass” (Lines 5-6). This personification suggests the snow is not harmful or malicious, but just something or someone who can’t help themselves, someone a little out of control and “stuttering” (Line 5). It seems uncertain about what it is doing, but, in its uncertainty, it causes small amounts of chaos by “tangling trees” (Line 11) that are “like old women / snarled / in their own / knitting” (Lines 13-16).