7. Summary of the poem

“Dust of Snow” is a poem written by Robert Frost. It is was first published in \(1923\) in his collection of poems called New Hampshire.  It is divided into two stanzas with four lines each.

In the poem, the speaker experiences a scene from nature that is seemingly trivial but has a significant impact on him. The first stanza explains how a crow on a hemlock tree shakes down some snow dust on him on a winter day. The speaker was feeling gloomy and remorseful when the incident took place. He had been spending his day being a pessimist. However, in the second stanza, we see that the manner in which the crow shook down the snow dust had given his heart a change of mood. He realises the importance of life and the need to survive. The speaker claims that the incident had invariably saved a part of the day he had regrettably ruined.

 

Despite the existing metaphors of a crow being a symbol of tragedy and death, we learn that it becomes the speaker's saviour and a source of inspiration.