17 pages • 34 minutes read
Robert FrostDust of Snow
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1923A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Relationship Between Humans and Nature
In Frost’s poem, the crow, weather, and tree work together with the human speaker, and this union between human and nature lifts the speaker’s mood. The union shows how the human world impacts the natural world and vice-versa, emphasizing a positive relationship on behalf of humanity and a neutral relationship on behalf of nature.
The possibility of this interaction between the speaker and the crow is by chance, as all elements needed to be present for this event to occur. This assembly line of necessary components starts with the hemlock tree. Without the hemlock tree, there’s no dust of snow or crow. With the tree in place, snow can fall and rest on the tree branches. Once the snow settles, the crow can land on the tree and shake the snow onto the speaker, who is the final component. The result isn’t definitive happiness, but it’s a less sorrowful “mood” (Line 6), indicating a positive response. Nature, alternatively, isn’t clearly affected by the speaker’s presence. Frost thus suggests a one-way beneficial relationship between the speaker and nature, emphasizing the human perspective of the speaker. Aside from the specificity of this point of view, the speaker is also focusing on themselves and does not pay extra emotional attention and empathy to the bird or the occurrence. The speaker benefits from their experience in nature, though this reaction is not necessarily reciprocated.
Managing Negative Feelings
In “Dust of Snow,” the reactionary change in the speaker is at the heart of the poem. The world of the poem is presumably the same world of the reader, an imperfect place. The humans who inhabit the world possess similar flaws, making unhappiness an inescapable feature of life. The suggested meaning behind the speaker’s change in mood is contextual due to the brevity of the poem, but Frost clearly asserts that positivity can result from changing one’s outlook or from interacting with the natural world.
Frost’s poem suggests that on an average day, one may feel negative emotions for any number of reasons, given that this nameless speaker in an undescribed situation admits to feeling down initially. However, intention and outlook can impact one’s state of mind. The speaker of Frost’s poem describes their mood change in Stanza 2, admitting that they were initially unhappy until this brief moment brightened their day. The speaker doesn’t feel fully happy, but rather feels better than they had. This elusive diction blurs the line between happiness and unhappiness. On this spectrum, the speaker is able to refocus their attention from themselves to the world at large, potentially putting their problems into perspective and becoming more cheerful as a result. Having a positive, less self-centered outlook, therefore, can change one’s day-to-day.
Aside from the concept of perspective and self-importance, nature itself plays a role in the speaker’s sudden burst of optimism. The simple occurrence of the snow falling from the crow and the hemlock tree offers a sudden, pleasant feeling for no apparent reason. With nature, the speaker learns to manage their unhappy feelings, and they don’t allow their dour feelings to pollute their day. The speaker “saved some part” of their day from what they had “rued” (Lines 7, 8). The speaker remains mobile and in touch with the world, and their interaction with nature doesn’t demolish whatever anguish they are feeling, but it gives their “heart” (Line 5) a lift. This connection with nature thematically overlaps with The Healing Powers of Nature and suggests that people find a sense of peace in the natural world versus in an industrialized society.
The Healing Powers of Nature
In Frost’s poem, the speaker has entered the natural world and is cheered by the snowfall from the crow in the hemlock tree. While nature doesn’t entirely heal the speaker from their sorrowful mood, it does cause an immeasurable “change of mood” (Line 6). The interaction with nature settles the speaker and allows them to have “saved some part / Of a day [they] had rued” (Lines 7-8), suggesting that nature has the capability of emotionally affecting humankind.
The speaker is in the natural world throughout this poem, and Frost acknowledges the speaker’s initial poor mood in this setting. Frost uses a stark tone and negative feelings, and the natural world contains its fair share of grimness. Crows are predatory and can kill and eat snakes, fish, and smaller birds. Snow and cold weather can make humans fatally sick, and they can damage their houses and make environments inhospitable. Hemlock, too, can kill, as it is a poison. Nature creates precarity and danger, and these elements of the story additionally have connections with negative symbolism. For example, in William Shakespeare’s “The Phoenix and the Turtle” (1601), the crow is symbolic of death itself, an agent who takes the lives of others. However, the crow, snow, and tree reveal themselves to be a positive harbinger, and, likewise, the human component of the story can adapt and find ways to mitigate disquieting emotions and environments.
By staying vulnerable, the speaker remains open to the world. Nature heals them, not by stamping out unhappiness once and for all, but by reaching their “heart” (Line 5) and giving it an unquantifiable nudge in a different direction. In other famous poems, nature doesn’t heal but exacerbates people’s troubles. In “Ode to the West Wind” (1820), the English Romantic Percy Bysshe Shelley presents nature as a fracturing force that intensifies the speaker’s melancholy. In Frost’s poem, nature calms the speaker and gives them a glimpse of peace, suggesting that returning to the natural world is an important part of one’s emotional well-being.
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