Discourse on 'Snowy Morning'

The english language Commentary- Wintry Morning, by Henry Shukman.

" Snowy Morning” is a melancholy piece regarding the difficulty and inevitability of claiming goodbye into a lifetime of photos, sensations and the beauty on the planet around all of us. Shukman uses images from childhood to create a sense of nostalgia and establishing a paradox involving the fear of death and dealing with death in a facetious method. In addition to this Shukman uses semantic fields working with the senses in order to make a more involved mental image of the field which the heightens the impact with the haunting rhetorical question at the close in the poem.

Shukman begins the poem with a child years reference that refers to thinking about death melodramatically, which contrasts sharply while using underlying anxiety about dying. Shukman states that he accustomed to, " play” at about to die which implies that it was considered as a light subject matter, something to become mocked in a variety of dramatic ways. However , this is followed by a mention of these people fake about to die with, " hands clasped to the chest”. This refers the physicality of the fear felt after contemplation of death and creates a paradox between the implied fear in, " hands clasped to the chest” plus the jocular strengthen of the previous lines. The result of this is usually to highlight the discrepancy between how we perceive death when ever amongst others and internally. From this we can infer that Shukman's message is that although we may show bravado when coping with death many of us feel feel dissapointed about towards our eventual demise.

" Snowy Morning” also sets out to convey a sense of incredulity that we must leave behind the infinite whole of the World and all the thoughts, recollections and emotions as we expire. Shukman poses the rhetorical question, " Say goodbye to everything? ” This implies that he finds the idea of going out of the world lurking behind so difficult that he must seek confirmation. The effect with this is to highlight the overriding theme stated in the poem, which is a feeling of melancholy and...