Joslyn Art Museum
WORKSHOP – Discovering Poetics in Paintings with Michael Catherwood
The Cross of Snow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
In the long, sleepless watches of the night
A gentle face--the face of one long dead-Looks at me from the wall, where round its head
The night-lamp casts a halo of pale light.
Here in this room she died; and soul more white
Never through martyrdom of fire was led
To its repose; nor can in books be read
The legend of a life more benedight.
There is a mountain in the distant West
That, sun-defying, in its deep ravines
Displays a cross of snow upon its side.
Such is the cross I wear upon my breast
These eighteen years, through all the changing scenes
And seasons, changeless since the day she died.
Petrarchan Sonnet, originated by Francesco Petrarca,
Italy 1300s.
Octave (first 8 lines): conflict introduced; desire expressed; reality reflected on
Sestet (last 6 lines) or Volta:change in tone( shift), proposal of solution
Rhyme Scheme: abbaabba, cdccdc
Ceasura: grammatical pause within a line
Enjambed Line: end of the line reads into the next line, no pause
Turn: Volta
End-stopped Line: grammatical pause at the end of a line
Metaphor: a thing becomes something else “is” or “of” sometimes used
Simile: comparison using like or as
Image: any tangible use of the five senses: hear, see, smell, taste, touch
Allusion: M.H. Abrams defined allusion as "a brief reference, explicit or indirect, to a
person, place or event, or to another literary work or passage.”
March 2010
- 1 -
Thomas
Moran’s
Mount
of
the
Holy
Cross
March 2010
- 2 -
Photograph by William Henry Jackson of Mount of the Holy Cross
March 2010
- 3 -