Snow-Bound
Encyclopedia
Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyl is a long narrative poem
by American poet John Greenleaf Whittier
first published in 1866.
, which still stands in Haverhill, Massachusetts
. The poem chronicles a rural New England family as a snowstorm rages outside for three days. Stuck in their home, the family members exchange stories by their roaring fire.
about it, referring to it as "a homely picture of old New England homes". Snow-Bound was first published as a book-length poem on February 17, 1866.
Snow-Bound was financially successful, much to Whittier's surprise. By the summer after its first publication, sales had reached 20,000, earning Whittier royalties of ten cents per copy. He ultimately collected $10,000 for it. Its popularity also led to the home depicted in the poem being preserved as a museum in 1892.
The first important critical response to Snow-Bound came from James Russell Lowell
. Published in the North American Review
, the review emphasized the poem as a record of a vanishing era. "It describes scenes and manners which the rapid changes of our national habits will soon have made as remote from us as if they were foreign or ancient," he wrote. "Already are the railroads displacing the companionable cheer of crackling walnut with the dogged self-complacency and sullen virtue of anthracite." The poem was second in popularity only to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
's The Song of Hiawatha
and was published well into the twentieth century. Though it remains in many common anthologies today, it is not as widely read as it once was.
United States, without acknowledging any of the specific forces modernizing the country. The raging snowstorm also suggests impending death, which is combated against through the family's nostalgic memories. Scholar Angela Sorby suggests the poem focuses on whiteness and its definition, ultimately signaling a vision of a biracial America after the Civil War.
Narrative poetry
Narrative poetry is poetry that has a plot. The poems that make up this genre may be short or long, and the story it relates to may be simple or complex. It is usually nondramatic, with objective regular scheme and meter. Narrative poems include epics, ballads, idylls and lays.Some narrative...
by American poet John Greenleaf Whittier
John Greenleaf Whittier
John Greenleaf Whittier was an influential American Quaker poet and ardent advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. He is usually listed as one of the Fireside Poets...
first published in 1866.
Overview
The poem takes place in what is today known as the John Greenleaf Whittier HomesteadJohn Greenleaf Whittier Homestead
The John Greenleaf Whittier Homestead is the birthplace and home of American Quaker poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier. It currently serves as a museum.-History:...
, which still stands in Haverhill, Massachusetts
Haverhill, Massachusetts
Haverhill is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 60,879 at the 2010 census.Located on the Merrimack River, it began as a farming community that would evolve into an important industrial center, beginning with sawmills and gristmills run by water power. In the...
. The poem chronicles a rural New England family as a snowstorm rages outside for three days. Stuck in their home, the family members exchange stories by their roaring fire.
Composition and publication history
Whittier began the poem originally as a personal gift to his niece Elizabeth as a method of remembering the family. Nevertheless, he told publisher James Thomas FieldsJames Thomas Fields
James Thomas Fields was an American publisher, editor, and poet.-Early life and family:He was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on December 31, 1817 and named James Field; the family later added the "s". His father was a sea captain and died before Fields was three...
about it, referring to it as "a homely picture of old New England homes". Snow-Bound was first published as a book-length poem on February 17, 1866.
Response
The first important critical response to Snow-Bound came from James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the Fireside Poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets who rivaled the popularity of British poets...
. Published in the North American Review
North American Review
The North American Review was the first literary magazine in the United States. Founded in Boston in 1815 by journalist Nathan Hale and others, it was published continuously until 1940, when publication was suspended due to J. H. Smyth, who had purchased the magazine, being unmasked as a Japanese...
, the review emphasized the poem as a record of a vanishing era. "It describes scenes and manners which the rapid changes of our national habits will soon have made as remote from us as if they were foreign or ancient," he wrote. "Already are the railroads displacing the companionable cheer of crackling walnut with the dogged self-complacency and sullen virtue of anthracite." The poem was second in popularity only to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...
's The Song of Hiawatha
The Song of Hiawatha
The Song of Hiawatha is an 1855 epic poem, in trochaic tetrameter, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, featuring an Indian hero and loosely based on legends and ethnography of the Ojibwe and other Native American peoples contained in Algic Researches and additional writings of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft...
and was published well into the twentieth century. Though it remains in many common anthologies today, it is not as widely read as it once was.
Analysis
The poem attempts to make the ideal past retrievable. By the time it was published, homes like the Whittier family homestead were examples of the fading rural past of the United States. The use of storytelling by the fireplace was a metaphor against modernity in a post-Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
United States, without acknowledging any of the specific forces modernizing the country. The raging snowstorm also suggests impending death, which is combated against through the family's nostalgic memories. Scholar Angela Sorby suggests the poem focuses on whiteness and its definition, ultimately signaling a vision of a biracial America after the Civil War.