There is no denying the fact that Robert Bridges was a classicist. He discarded modern trends and modernization in poetry in favor of an easier technique to achieve, with good grace understood, which is discernible in the exquisite poem London Snow. in view of a prolonged fall of snow that floats incessantly to conceal the City and The poem addresses four of the five human senses: vision, hearing, taste and touch, and employs a moderate use of metaphor. The reader presents himself muffling the usual noises. The ear unusually ‘hears’ stillness – an oxymoron. Schoolchildren stick out their tongues to catch snowflakes, metaphorically described as manna (meaning food from heaven), and make snowballs, freezing their tongues and hands. The snow lying on the ground is a “white moss wonder”
• The poem is accessible as a solitary stanza of thirty-seven lines. The effect produced by this form is that of an endless chain of autonomous events, which continues with the snowfall that persists during the hours of darkness.
• There are three final stops in the poem – on lines 9, 24 and 30 (plus the final stop on line 37). Stops indicate a brief break in the narrative.
• By camping out through the points where some poets might have chosen to create stanza breaks, Bridges has created a flow through the poem, reflecting the incessant and prolonged snowstorm.
• The length of the verses ranges from eleven syllables to seventeen syllables and the meter is irregular, creating a poem with a rhythm that resembles the rhythm of speech.
The poetic imagery in Robert Bridges’ London Snow is used to defamiliarize the familiar or to acquaint the reader with unusual phenomena. In London Snow, Bridges defamiliarizes the streets of London (“the brown of the city” has turned white) with keen observation of the action and the transformative effect of snowfall. He acquaints the reader with the phenomenon of snow, which is rare enough in the south of England to cause a shiver of wonder and excitement (“The eye wondered, wondered at the dazzling whiteness”).
in view of a prolonged fall of snow that floats incessantly to conceal the City and The poem addresses four of the five human senses: vision, hearing, taste and touch, and employs a moderate use of metaphor. The reader presents himself muffling the usual noises. The ear unusually ‘hears’ stillness – an oxymoron. Schoolchildren stick out their tongues to catch snowflakes, metaphorically described as manna (meaning food from heaven), and make snowballs, freezing their tongues and hands. The snow lying on the ground is a “white moss wonder”
Alliteration in London Snow by Robert Bridges
There is a great deal of alliteration in London Snow. Alliteration is the repeated use of a letter or syllable, usually, but not always, at the beginning of a word. For example, the sibilant consonant s, this slows down the rhythm: asleep, snow, stealthily, settling, sifting quietly. Sibilance in poetry is a stylistic device in which consonants, used in rapid succession, emphasize words.
A stylistic device in ‘London Snow’
• Most adverbs end with the letters ly.
• Adverbs tell us more about the action described in a verb.
• Bridges has used adverbs of manner profusely in ‘London Snow’. They tell us how an action was performed, in this case the way the snow arrived. Look at lines 1-9 and choose the adverbs.
Use of the -ing verb form in ‘London Snow’
• A verb ending in ing is a present participle when used with a verb of movement. It describes how an action was performed. For example, in line 1 the snow flew out. (Vino is the past tense of the verb to come and fly is the present participle of the verb to fly.)
• Bridges has used the present participle extensively, as a poetic device of repetition, in lines 1-9 to describe how the snow came to be. for example, settle, silence, muffle.
Suffice it to say that ‘The British Poet Laureate’ is an honorary role, currently bestowed by the reigning monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister after proper consultation. There are no specific responsibilities, but an incumbent Poet Laureate is expected to write poems to commemorate important national occasions. If you enjoyed reading London Snow and would like to read more of Robert Bridges’ poems, a former poet laureate, I highly recommend this collection of his works. In fact, the originality of the laureate dates back to 1616, when the reigning monarch, King James I, provided a pension to Ben Johnson. Each poet laureate receives a modest annual fee. The tradition of also offering a sherry cask continues to this day.