London

Snow
By Robert Bridges

Edfinity Lecture Series

Grade 9
 London Snow
When men were all asleep the snow came flying,
In large white flakes falling on the city brown,
Stealthily and perpetually settling and loosely lying,
Hushing the latest traffic of the drowsy town;
Deadening, muffling, stifling its murmurs failing;
Lazily and incessantly floating down and down:
Silently sifting and veiling road, roof and railing;
Hiding difference, making unevenness even,
Into angles and crevices softly drifting and sailing.
All night it fell, and when full inches seven
It lay in the depth of its uncompacted lightness,
The clouds blew off from a high and frosty heaven;
And all woke earlier for the unaccustomed brightness
Of the winter dawning, the strange unheavenly glare:
The eye marvelled—marvelled at the dazzling whiteness;
The ear hearkened to the stillness of the solemn air;
No sound of wheel rumbling nor of foot falling,
And the busy morning cries came thin and spare.
Then boys I heard, as they went to school, calling,
They gathered up the crystal manna to freeze
Their tongues with tasting, their hands with snowballing;
Or rioted in a drift, plunging up to the knees;
Or peering up from under the white-mossed wonder,
‘O look at the trees!’ they cried, ‘O look at the trees!’
With lessened load a few carts creak and blunder,
Following along the white deserted way,
A country company long dispersed asunder:
When now already the sun, in pale display
Standing by Paul’s high dome, spread forth below
His sparkling beams, and awoke the stir of the day.
For now doors open, and war is waged with the snow;
And trains of sombre men, past tale of number,
Tread long brown paths, as toward their toil they go:
But even for them awhile no cares encumber
Their minds diverted; the daily word is unspoken,
The daily thoughts of labour and sorrow slumber
At the sight of the beauty that greets them, for the
charm they have broken
 The Rhyme Scheme
• Bridges has chosen to give this poem a specific, and consistent rhyme
scheme that only diverges from its pattern every few lines. The poem
begins with the end rhymes, ababcbcdc, the second set of lines ends
with different words but follows the same exact pattern. The rest of
the poem continues in a similar form, with only one or two misplaced
words per stanza.
• It is also important to note the repetition of general ending sounds
that are used in the poem. Bridges has emphasized the ‘ing’ sound in
the first three sections. Even if all the words do not perfectly rhyme,
they often create half or slant rhymes.
Summary
‘London Snow’ by Robert Bridges describes an early morning snowfall in London
and the reactions of those who walk within it.
• The poem begins with the speaker stating that it is snowing in the city, and since
everyone is asleep, no one yet knows. When finally the city begins to wake, all
are quiet. No one wants to disturb the peace of these moments. They all know it
is fleeting and will not come again soon.
• The narrator eventually flips the poem and begins to speak of himself in the first
person. He becomes a character that walks along the trees of London listening to
the yelling of school boys, and enjoying their excitement over the beauty of what
they are seeing for the first time.
• In the final section he describes the “brown” of humanity returning to the snow
as the sombre men walk to their workplaces. While it seems to be a depressing
scene, in reality they are lighter in mind and heart than usual and do find some
pleasant diversion in the vastly changed landscape
• Analysis of London Snow
• Lines 1-9
• The first lines of this piece take the reader to a place that is at once
familiar, but also magical. Immediately one is placed in a position of
knowledge as the subjects of the poem, the men and women of the
city of London, are still sleeping as the main action occurs. There is a
snow falling over the city of which no one is yet aware, aside from the
narrator and the readers, of course.
• The speaker describes the snow as if it has its own agency. It “came
flying,” seemingly by choice, “In large white flakes.” It has come to
grace a city which is usually “brown.” The London of this era, just like
many other cities, then and now, was known for dank streets and
dirty thoroughfares. Snow, in all its purity, seems out of place within
the “brown” muck of compressed humanity.
• The poet continues to make use of anthropomorphism to describe
the actions of the snow. It is gliding into the city “Stealthily.” Its
inherent quietness disturbs no one and guarantees a surprise when
everyone is finally awake. The streets begin to be covered by a layer
of it, “hushing” the traffic of the still sleeping town. The wheels of the
cars make no noise as they pass over the snow.
• Bridges uses a large number of verbs to describe the actions of the
snow. They fall one after another creating a semi-rhyming pattern
within the lines of the poem. The flakes are “sifting,” “floating,”
“drifting and sailing” to the ground.
•
• Lines 10-18
• In the second set of lines the speaker continues to describe the path
of the snow and how it came to the streets of London that night. It
continued to fall all through the night until it reached a “full…seven”
inches. For London this is a remarkable amount of snow, but it still
manages to lay in “lightness” on the ground.
• By the time the city is getting up, the clouds that created the snow
are long gone. They “blew off” from the sky leaving a clear view out
over the newly white landscape. The light that this clearness creates
brings everyone out of bed earlier. All the people of the city are used
to much darker mornings.
• While to some, a snowfall might seem unimportant, to the people of
London it is a marvellous feat. Everyone is dazed by the “whiteness”
and amazed by the silences of the streets as everyone contemplates
the landscape. The city has undergone a true transformation. There
are no cars or carts on the street, and those who do venture out, do
so quietly. The “morning cries” are “thin and spare.” They are quiet
and infrequent.
• Lines 19-30
• The next set of lines signal a change in the poem, the speaker
introduces himself using the first person pronoun, “I.” He has left his
house, intent on walking through the newly made city. The narrative
of the piece narrows down and turns to focus on what the speaker
can see from his perspective.
• From where he is walking he can hear the “boys…calling.” They are on
their way to school and stop to pick up and taste the magical snow. It
contains what he calls, “manna,” meaning something unexpected.
The snow is a benefit that no one was looking for.
• The young boys are truly amazed by what they are seeing. So much
so, they call to one another and express particular fondness for the
trees. It seems as if they have never seen snow before. Perhaps this is
the first time it has snowed since they were born.
• There are only a few “carts” on the road and those which are there
move along very quietly. Everyone is doing their best to preserve the
peace of the morning for as long as possible.
• The sun has only just come up, but most of the city is already awake,
due to the brightness of the snow. The light is illuminating St. Paul’s
Cathedral and spreading across the ground. It brings further glory to
the landscape, but also alludes to the fact that the snow will melt
sooner rather than later.
• Lines 31-37
• In the final seven lines the speaker returns to focus on the moment
he is living. The perfection of these few minutes and hours begin to
come to a close as all the working men are forced to carry on with
their lives. As they leave their homes a “war is waged with the snow.”
They fight against it as they walk, in “trains of sombre men.”
• The men are innumerable and serve as a stark remember of the
reality of the city. They bring their humanity with them, dirtying the
snow as they go, returning it to the brown of the city.
• The happier initial tone of the poem reasserts itself and the speaker
looks into the minds of the men. They are not as depressed as they
usually are.The landscape is serving as a distraction that helps keep
their minds, for a moment anyway, off their realities.