Snowbound

"Snowbound" - John Greenleaf Whittier

When snow blankets the countryside and drifts cover familiar pathways, I recall the "idyll" by Whittier. While I did not read the entire rhyming story to my students, I did read the first few stanzas, lines they could imagine as true in their own experiences.

They did roll their eyes at my enthusiasm for the beauty of Whittier's word pictures, but I was not deterred.  

Beauty is all around us, and even old, dead poets' words can warm our hearts.

   ...And, when the second morning shone,

    We looked upon a world unknown,

     On nothing we could call our own.

    Around the glistening wonder bent

   The blue walls of the firmament,

    No cloud above, no earth below,—

     A universe of sky and snow!

 

The old familiar sights of ours

Took marvelous shapes; strange domes and towers  

Rose up where sty or corn-crib stood,

Or garden-wall, or belt of wood;

A smooth white mound the brush-pile showed,

A fenceless drift what once was road;

The bridle-post an old man sat

With loose-flung coat and high cocked hat;

The well-curb had a Chinese roof;

And even the long sweep, high aloof,

In its slant splendor, seemed to tell

Of Pisa’s leaning miracle...

March snowfall, Rector, Arkansas

March 4, 2015