Till all my being seems to be
Transfigured by their purity.
NOTES AND QUESTIONS
Biography. John Townsend Trowbridge (1827-1916) was an American author. His home was in Cambridge, Mass., within the shadow of Harvard College. At one time he was one of the editors of Our Young Folks’ Magazine. “Midwinter” and “Darius Green and His Flying Machine” are two of his poems most widely known.
Discussion. 1. Compare the picture that the first stanza gives you with that given you in the first stanza of “Snow-Flakes” and that given you by the first ten lines of “The Snow Storm.” 2. Compare the picture that the fourth stanza gives you with that given by lines 17-22 of “The Snow Storm.” 3. In the fourth stanza, what does the poet say the snowstorm does? 4. What does the poet mean by “muffled wizard of the wood”? 5. What pictures does the sixth stanza give you? 6. Which of these descriptions seems to you most apt? 7. What does the poet mean by “inmost ear”? 8. Compare this meaning with that of “inward eye” in Wordsworth’s “The Daffodils” and with “eyes in the heart” in Lowell’s “To the Dandelion.” 9. What do the “heavenly thoughts” suggested by the scene do for the poet?
Phrases
- [flickering curtains, 82, 6]
- [ivory woof, 82, 18]
- [paves with pearl, 82, 19]
- [tattered stalk, 82, 20]
- [shivering stem, 82, 21]
- [alabaster lid, 82, 26]
- [clustering spangles, 83, 7]
- [surplice white, 83, 11]
BLOW, BLOW, THOU WINTER WIND
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE