Sunny and cold
Today, like yesterday, has dawned clear and bright - extremely bright, really, due to the snow glare.
Things are returning to normal. The kids are off to school after their two-hour delay (the high school, which opens earliest, starts at 10) and the roads are slowly clearing and all is right with the . . . WHAT? One to two feet more coming tomorrow into Wednesday?
Two storms converging at once, and I
I wish that they would pass us by:
it would make all the difference.
My apologies to Robert Frost, who knew a little something about snow. You can read these past posts on Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening, Desert Places (which opens "Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast,"),and if you're so inclined, you can read my post on The Road Not Taken, which I've parodied here.
I shall try to look for small happinesses, however, in keeping with another of Frost's poems:
Dust of Snow
by Robert Frost
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
This small gem of a poem is composed of a single sentence, which is set out in two cross-rhymed stanzas (ABAB CDCD) and written in accentual verse with two poetic feet and two stressed syllables per line:
the WAY a CROW
shook DOWN on ME
the DUST of SNOW
from a HEMlock TREE
has GIVen my HEART
a CHANGE of MOOD
and SAVED some PART
of a DAY i had RUED.
Lines 1,2,3,6 & 7 are written using iambs (taDUM). Line four consists of an anapest (tittyTUM) followed by an iamb (taDUM). Line 5 consists of an amphibrach (taDUMta) followed by an iamb (taDUM), and line 8 consists of two anapests (tittyTUM). The end result is a somewhat playful metre for a playful sort of observation: Frost has been moping about (apparently) outside, and a crow has landed on the branch of an evergreen, shaking snow down on his head. Now that might have made some folks upset, but in this instance, it seems to have lifted Frost's spirits. Maybe he remembered doing such a thing to a friend when he was a boy, or maybe it gave him an idea for a poem when he'd been blocked, or maybe it reminded himself not to take himself quite so seriously -- or maybe he saw this happen to someone else, which would be funny indeed, but decided to co-opt the experience for his poem. (Not all poems are autobiography, after all, even when they read as if they are true.)
Off to plan a few days' worth of menus, and then to the market to lay in further supplies - including a new movie or two and perhaps some supplies with which to make Valentines to keep us all occupied when we become housebound. (There's no way we'll have school on Wednesday, even if the storm follows the alternate track and drops only 6-10", since it's supposed to be snowy and blustery most of the day on Wednesday.)
Things are returning to normal. The kids are off to school after their two-hour delay (the high school, which opens earliest, starts at 10) and the roads are slowly clearing and all is right with the . . . WHAT? One to two feet more coming tomorrow into Wednesday?
Two storms converging at once, and I
I wish that they would pass us by:
it would make all the difference.
My apologies to Robert Frost, who knew a little something about snow. You can read these past posts on Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening, Desert Places (which opens "Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast,"),and if you're so inclined, you can read my post on The Road Not Taken, which I've parodied here.
I shall try to look for small happinesses, however, in keeping with another of Frost's poems:
Dust of Snow
by Robert Frost
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
This small gem of a poem is composed of a single sentence, which is set out in two cross-rhymed stanzas (ABAB CDCD) and written in accentual verse with two poetic feet and two stressed syllables per line:
the WAY a CROW
shook DOWN on ME
the DUST of SNOW
from a HEMlock TREE
has GIVen my HEART
a CHANGE of MOOD
and SAVED some PART
of a DAY i had RUED.
Lines 1,2,3,6 & 7 are written using iambs (taDUM). Line four consists of an anapest (tittyTUM) followed by an iamb (taDUM). Line 5 consists of an amphibrach (taDUMta) followed by an iamb (taDUM), and line 8 consists of two anapests (tittyTUM). The end result is a somewhat playful metre for a playful sort of observation: Frost has been moping about (apparently) outside, and a crow has landed on the branch of an evergreen, shaking snow down on his head. Now that might have made some folks upset, but in this instance, it seems to have lifted Frost's spirits. Maybe he remembered doing such a thing to a friend when he was a boy, or maybe it gave him an idea for a poem when he'd been blocked, or maybe it reminded himself not to take himself quite so seriously -- or maybe he saw this happen to someone else, which would be funny indeed, but decided to co-opt the experience for his poem. (Not all poems are autobiography, after all, even when they read as if they are true.)
Off to plan a few days' worth of menus, and then to the market to lay in further supplies - including a new movie or two and perhaps some supplies with which to make Valentines to keep us all occupied when we become housebound. (There's no way we'll have school on Wednesday, even if the storm follows the alternate track and drops only 6-10", since it's supposed to be snowy and blustery most of the day on Wednesday.)