To One Coming North

Snow symbolizes newness and wonder as well as unfamiliarity and despair. The speaker’s ambivalence towards snow captures the complex experience of recent migrants whose own emotions may fluctuate as they leave one home in search of another. Initially, snow can be a wondrous sight for someone who has lived in a warm climate all their lives. The speaker compares snow to facets of previous experience, likening snow to playful white moths “trembling on the tropic air” (Line 2). The speaker acknowledges that snow has the potential to be enchanting, especially if individuals are using their senses, memories, and imagination to process a new sensory experience.

The second stanza captures the moment of disenchantment, as a cold, hard reality breaks the spell of snowfall. Now, snow is funereal, covering “the fields and streets” (Line 5) in an expanse of white. The blankness of snow, previously associated with freshness, now becomes a symbol of despair and hardship. Snow soon becomes symbolic of change since it melts at the start of spring in the final stanza. This final image of melting snow suggests that, ultimately, snow is life-giving and full of growth potential.