\input setup
\pt{110}\relax\rm
\baselineskip=20pt
\parskip=\baselineskip
\centerline{An Analysis of May Oliver's}
\centerline{//First Snow//}
\bigskip
\centerline{Andrew Marc Greene}
\centerline{for 21.760}
\centerline{Due 15 October 1990}
\vskip .75in

Mary Oliver's //First Snow// depicts a snowfall in the country as a
monologue of nature.  Although it has no stanza breaks, it clearly consists
of two sections.  The first illustrates the actual snowfall, while the
second describes the world afterwards.  The sections are separated by the
only fully end-stopped line within the poem.  Oliver establishes her
mataphor early in the first section, referring to the ``white/ rhetoric'' of
the snow and its questions.  She develops the metaphor with ``an oracular
fever,'' to be contrasted with the ``immense'' silence that begins the
second section.  The resolution comes with the sense of an answer
introduced in the last line.

The use of metaphor is enhanced by Oliver's listing of four of the six
questions of rhetoric, ``//why//, //how//,/ //whence// such beauty and
``//what//{}/ the meaning.''  Her omission of //when// is covered by the
passage of time in the poem; the lack of a //who// brings into focus the
``us'' of the poem, the presence of both the poet and the reader as
observers.

A sense of dynamic excitement in the first section is contrasted with a
calmness in the second.  The snow seems ironically on fire, with the
``fever!'' which flows, and ``energy'' which does not ebb.  (These two
expressions use alliteration for reinforcement.)  The fields later
``smolder'' in the second part, in which the repetition of ``silence''
evokes the sense of stillness that arises from the dying down of the
metaphorical flames.

Other instances of consonance and alliteration enhance certain images.  The
strong //h// of ``white/ rhetoric'' precedes that of the question words
``//why//, //how//,/ //whence//'' and ``//what//.''  The //f//'s and
//w//'s of ``fever! flowing/ past windows'' connote liquidity.  The four
//s// and //z// sounds of ``silence/ is immense'' form a white noise.  The
final line break, ``fields/ feels,'' is an off-homophone that serves to
unify the two lines and set up a final cadence.

Many of these sound devices cross line breaks, increasing their power.  The
final line break has already been discussed; additionally ``white/
rhetoric,'' ``flowing/ past windows,'' and ``The silence/ is immense'' all
benefit from their line breaks.  One additional effective break is ``a
passing/ creekbed.''  Two of these breaks draw their power from
adjective/noun separation, and one from verb/preposition separation.  ``The
silence'' is a strong mood-setting subject, and it rhymes with ``is
immense'' on the following line, creating a syllabically balanced (but
metrically unstable) brief couplet at the turning point of the poem.

In //First Snow//, Oliver takes us on three journeys.  Two of them are
binary, corresponding to the binary structure of the poem.  Temporally, we
pass from morning (and day) to night.  In setting we begin inside (watching
through windows) and end outside, where our third journey takes place.  We
observe the trees, the fields, and the creekbed, scanning from far to near;
then we travel out through them, where we find what passes for an answer to
our silently voiced questions.

\bye