In the second and third verses of Poem in Winter, the poet uses words which designate the future, “auguries”, “omens”, these two words are each defining what may make the snow appear, auguries means a sign of what may happen in the future and omens means how a future event will take place in the future. They each talk about snow but in a different way. The word auguries in the context is more positive then the word omens, in this case. Auguries is used for the children’s view and omens for the adults view. In the second verse of Snow, the poet talks about roses and snow. This is a quite interesting verse because roses and snow are never at the same time together. Then in the third verse, the poet says that roses and snow
are not compatible together because roses blossom in the spring and snow appears in the winter.
In the fourth verse, the author uses the word “World”, we do not know if it’s our world, I think MacNeice is describing his world. This poem is not very precise and we wonder about a lot of things. Otherwise in Poem in Winter the poet describes the scenery very well and we know what is exactly happening.
In Snow in the second stanza, the use of the word “and” is as if the poet is making a list and it makes the reader more interested. There is also an alliteration of the letter “p”, “spit the pips”. The alliteration gives a rhythm to the poem. There is also an alliteration in Poem in Winter in the second stanza but of the letter “s”, “still shall stand”. This alliteration shows a sort of softness to the poem, just like the snow. In the same verse “a pane of glass” represents a barrier between us and the snow, it seems like we never touch its beauty and perfection. In the same poem, the children are playing in the snow and they believe that they are the ones who’ve made winter happen. In Snow , the author is telling us that “his” world is a very diverse world and various one. He says that it is more various than what we think it is. He compares “his” world to the different flavours of a tangerine and by saying how various it is.
The idea of these two poems reinforces how different the are from each another.
In the third stanza of Poem in Winter, the poet is telling us that the children are right to believe in their dreams, to hope for the snow to come down and not to be like adults who are pessimistic at times and not hope for anything, that nothing will happen, that the snow will not fall down. In the poem Snow, the first verse of the second stanza, “fire flames with a bubbling sound”. Fire does not make a bubbling sound but a crackling sound, but it is when snow melts that we hear a bubbling sound, so this means that in this fire, there is snow. The author is also saying that even though how various “his” world is, that it can be a happy world. In the last verse MacNeice says, “There is more than glasses between the snow and the huge roses”, he is basically saying that snow and pink roses are very different from each other. The roses and the snow are a microcosm of “his” world.
In conclusion, these two poems talk about snow but in a very different way. In Poem in Winter, Jennings is showing us its beauty and its perfection but in Snow, MacNeice is using the snow to show how contrasting “his” world is and maybe he talking about our world. In Snow, the narrator’s use of imagery, variations and language is very precise and makes the poem very interesting. Poem in Winter is a very precise poem and a very good example of the imagery.
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