16 pages • 32 minutes read
David BermanSnow
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1999A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Snow
Snow often represents many things. Typically, poetry that takes place in the winter leverages the cold bleakness of the season to express feelings of isolation, sadness, and death. Ice and snow are usually part of this imagery.
Berman uses snow in a similar way, though like most of the poem, the symbolism is unique. The speaker of the poem personifies the snow, turning it into an angel. The snow angels in the fallen snow become the actual remains of angels, turning what should be a childish image (the snow angel) into something twisted and almost sacrilegious.
Berman personifies the snow, and he also uses the snow to craft an intriguing metaphor. At the end of the poem, the speaker compares the outdoors to a room, and in that room, the snow acts as the walls. However, because the snow is falling, the walls are “blasted to shreds” (Line 14). This is a unique way of describing falling snow, but it links with the earlier description of angels dissolving as they hit the ground (Line 4).
The snow can easily be symbolic of the coldness of the speaker’s heart, but it could also be symbolic of the innocence of the younger brother. As he journeys with his brother and hears the story of the angels, his brother tears his innocence to shreds. However, as is the case with most parts of this poem, this interpretation is imperfect because the younger brother seems so oblivious to the speaker’s gruesome story.
The Angels and the Farmer
Similar to the snow, the angels connect to the younger brother, and the farmer connects to the speaker. Just as the farmer shoots the angels for being on his property, dissolving them into oblivion, the speaker’s story has the potential to destroy the younger brother’s innocence.
The image of the angel is often used to symbolize divinity, chastity, and innocence. Children are often depicted as angels because of their innocence. This association goes back to the western concept of sin. While adults are supposedly corrupted by sin as a result of experience, people often see children as too unaware to be blamed for their actions. This obliviousness perfectly describes the younger brother in the poem: While his older brother seems preoccupied by these abstract preoccupations, the younger brother views the invented story literally and is only concerned with the trivial details.
The Outdoor Room
The second half of the poem builds a simile that compares the outdoors to a room. This simile continues the poem’s consistent use of contrast. The outdoors are usually viewed as expansive and free, yet the poem compares the outdoors to a room, which is closed and limited. The simile works because a snowy winter sky often feels like it is encroaching on the ground, as the sky is milky white, limiting its scope. In this sense, the comparison makes sense.
However, the bigger meaning of the simile is the creation of a claustrophobic environment. The poem begins in a field, suggesting openness; but at the end, the openness of nature has adopted “new acoustics” (Line 13), suggesting a change in reality. The reader must then ponder on what has changed, and there are multiple possibilities: the brothers’ relationship, the younger brother’s innocence, or the older brother’s view of the world.
