A Summary and Analysis of Robert Frost’s ‘Dust of Snow’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Dust of Snow’ is a poem by the American poet Robert Frost (1874-1963), originally published as ‘A Favour’ in the London Mercury before being reprinted in Yale Review as ‘Snow Dust’. It was then collected in Frost’s 1923 book of poems, New Hampshire.

The poem’s speaker describes how a crow shaking some snow off a tree and onto him lightens his mood after a bad day which he would otherwise rather have forgotten.

Summary

The poem’s speaker tells us that when a crow shook loose a ‘dust of snow’ from a hemlock tree, showering him unexpectedly, his heart was lifted and his mood improved. The ending of the poem reveals that this couldn’t have come at a better time for him, since the day on which this chance snowfall occurred was a day the speaker had ‘rued’: that is, it had been a disappointing or sorrowful day which he regretted ever happening.

In other words, this seemingly insignificant event – the snow-dust falling on him – shifts his perspective entirely. The poem ends with the speaker feeling ‘saved’ from his negativity, finding solace in the simple act of nature.

Analysis

A key theme of the poem is the transformative power of nature. Even a small gesture from the natural world, like a gentle snowfall caused by chance, can have a profound impact on our mood and outlook. It suggests that nature offers solace from the more challenging aspects of living.

For one thing, nature can remind us of the bigger picture beyond our individual troubles. The poem’s speaker doesn’t tell us why he had ‘rued’ the day in question, but it’s possible he had done things he regretted: ‘rue’ is close in meaning to ‘regret’, and Frost’s final line seems to summon the common phrase: ‘live to rue the day’, meaning to live long enough to regret a particular course of action.

Such regret and remorse can weigh heavily on us and darken our mood for the rest of the day, and perhaps longer. But we can also run the risk of placing too much importance or emphasis on our actions, believing that mistakes we made, or our conduct, are more consequential and more damaging than they really are.

The crow upsetting the snow in the hemlock tree offers a gentle reminder to the speaker that he should put his own troubles into perspective, and remember that he is just an insignificant part of a much larger natural ecosystem. For once, being reminded how small and unimportant we really are as individuals is seen as a positive rather than a negative insight.

However, at the same time, it’s important to keep something else in perspective: Frost does not pretend that this chance encounter with some snowfall has entirely salvaged his bad day, and it is worth bearing in mind that he states only that the crow’s actions have merely ‘saved some small part’ (emphasis added).

Is ‘Dust of Snow’ a Romantic poem, then, which emphasises the transformative power of nature? Frost was certainly working in the Romantic tradition, but his Romanticism is more grounded than that of earlier poets like Wordsworth, who could have his ‘vacant’ or ‘pensive mood’ completely overturned by the pleasurable remembrance of the dancing daffodils in his celebrated poem.

Symbolism

The dust of snow, or snow-dust, represents small but significant changes that can bring joy and clarity. The cleansing symbolism of the white snow (‘white’ denotes purity, of course) is also being called into play, of course.

The symbolism of the (black) crow is more ambiguous. The crow is sometimes viewed as a playful trickster (an association which a later nature poet, Ted Hughes, would make much of in his 1970 collection, Crow) or as a harbinger of doom. The fact that the bird has such negative connotations only heightens the central message of Frost’s poem: that we can find relief from the world’s hardships in the most surprising places.

The crow, we assume, didn’t intend to unsettle the snow so that it would fall on the speaker, but this act of disruption and disturbance nevertheless prompts him to reassess his dour, downcast mood. The crow’s action acts as the catalyst for change. Similarly, the hemlock tree, being poisonous, can be seen as symbolic of darkness or death; here, though, it plays an unexpected part in bringing joy to the speaker.

Form

The poem comprises two stanzas, both quatrains with alternate rhymes (abab). The form is simple, and the lines are short: the metre is iambic dimeter, meaning that each line comprises two iambs (an iamb being a foot that consists of a light stress followed by a heavy stress). We can see this in the first line: ‘The WAY a CROW’, or in the third line: ‘The DUST of SNOW’.

The simple form of the poem reflects the poem’s overall message, we might say: that of finding beauty, and therefore joy, in simplicity.

The syntax of the poem is simple, too. The poem is a single sentence, with the only punctuation being the full stop at the end of the final line. What’s more, Frost uses enjambment (where the syntax of one line continues into the next) to masterly effect: at the end of the first line we are left wondering what the crow did until we learn in the next line (‘Shook’), and then at the end of the second line we wonder what it shook down on the speaker, which is revealed in the third line (‘The dust of snow’), and so on.

Similarly, at the level of the stanzas, the first stanza describes the actions of the crow, but we have to wait for the second stanza (‘Has given’) before we learn what significance this act has for the speaker’s own mood.

Final Thoughts

‘Dust of Snow’ is a deceptively simple poem with a powerful message. It reminds us of the importance of embracing small moments of wonder and finding solace in the natural world. Frost is a realist about just how healing or emotionally empowering nature can be as a sop for our day-to-day troubles; but he does remind us that nature can offer some degree of solace to us.

Despite its brevity, the poem leaves a lasting impression, prompting reflection on our own capacity for resilience and the unexpected sources of joy in life.