Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Fanny Howe’s "Let It Snow" is a minimalist meditation on the nature of snow, existence, and knowledge, blending simplicity with depth. The poem’s brevity and open-endedness invite contemplation, as its lines suggest more than they explicitly state.

The first line, "Let it snow unless it is in heaver," presents an initial ambiguity—"heaver" could be a typographical play on "heaven," or it might suggest weight, burden, or movement (heaving). If read as "heaven," the line implies that snowfall is welcome on earth but unnecessary in the divine realm, where perhaps perfection negates the need for transformation. If read in terms of weight, it introduces a tension: snow, though often associated with lightness and purity, also accumulates and becomes heavy, burdensome.

The next line, "Let it know," anthropomorphizes the snow, attributing it with awareness or self-knowledge. The phrase suggests that the snow should understand its own essence, its transience, its identity as "waterstuff." This recalls scientific and philosophical meditations on the cycle of water—snow is a temporary state, destined to melt, evaporate, and return in another form. The line may also gesture toward a broader existential reflection: should things (or people) inherently know themselves? Is there an intrinsic identity, or is everything fluid and changing like snow?

The concluding image—"as it covers the silver winter dinner bell"—grounds the poem in a sensory, almost pastoral moment. A "silver winter dinner bell" evokes a rural or old-fashioned setting, where a bell might summon people to a meal, a gathering, or warmth in contrast to the cold. The covering of the bell by snow suggests silence, a muffling of sound, an erasure of function. Snow transforms the familiar into something hidden or changed, just as time and nature alter all things.

Ultimately, "Let It Snow" reads as a quiet, meditative poem that contemplates snow’s nature and its metaphorical implications. It suggests that even transient things—like snow, like people—carry an essence that deserves recognition, yet they are also subject to erasure and transformation. The final image leaves us with the silence of snow settling over the world, suggesting beauty, inevitability, and mystery.

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