13
Vocabulary Builder
Latin Root -radi• Call students’ attention to the word
radiant and its definition.
Tell students that the Latin word
root -radi- means “spoke” or “ray.”
• Challenge students to suggest
other words containing this root.
Possible answers: radial, radiate,
radiator, radio, radiology
• Ask students how the word
radiant contributes to the meaning
of the stanza.
Possible response: It evokes a
cozy mood by suggesting that the
fireplace’s heat and security
radiate through the room to shield
occupants from the storm.
14
Reading Check
Answer: He describes the arrival of
the snow and wind, the wind’s blowing of the snow, the snow’s covering
of buildings and landscape.
12
5
13
Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow, and, driving o’er the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air
Hides hills and woods, the river, and the heaven,
And veils the farmhouse at the garden’s end.
The sled and traveler stopped, the courier’s feet
Delayed, all friends shut out, the house mates sit
Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed
In a tumultuous privacy of storm.
Vocabulary Builder
radiant (rà« dè ßnt) adj.
shining brightly
tumultuous (tØ mul« chØ
ßs) adj. rough; stormy
14
What action of the wind
and snow does the speaker
describe?
The Snowstorm ■ 397
Support for
Less Proficient Readers
Strategy for
English Learners
Enrichment for
Advanced Readers
As students read the poem,
help them understand
Emerson’s extended metaphor.
Direct students’ attention to
the final stanza. Guide students
to understand that the snowstorm, by coating everything
with snow, has created the illusion that it has formed from
snow in a single night buildings that would take people
years to build.
Review the definition of
metaphor with students and
explain that sometimes writers
extend a metaphor throughout
a work. In “The Snowstorm,”
Emerson compares nature to a
human architect. Help students
find examples of the metaphor,
such as Emerson’s description
of the “north wind’s masonry.”
Draw students’ attention to
the extended metaphor
Emerson uses to describe the
effect of the snowstorm. Then,
remind students of reading
the excerpt from Snowbound
(p. 282). Challenge students
to compare and contrast the
figurative language each poet
uses to describe snow and
snowstoms.
397
10
Answers
1. Possible response: I am similarly fascinated by the visual
effects snow can create, although
at times these cause me inconvenience.
2. (a) The sled and traveler must
stop; the courier is delayed; the
house mates remain inside
together.
(b) Possible response: He
means that the storm’s disturbance creates privacy by keeping
visitors away and keeping residents from leaving.
3. (a) The following words relate
to the design and construction
of buildings: masonry, quarry,
furnished with tile, artificer,
bastions, projected roof, work,
number or proportion, coop or
kennel, wall to wall.
(b) They suggest that he views the
snowstorm as a gifted creator or
artisan.
4. (a) It leaves human artists and
architects to imitate, slowly and
with difficulty, what the storm
created overnight.
(b) It reflects the idea that
humans can find a parallel to their
own creative force in nature and
vice versa.
5. Possible response: Snowstorms
can cause tremendous damage to
buildings and to nature, as well as
to business through transportation delays, stranded employees,
and lack of commerce.
For additional information about Ralph Waldo
Emerson, have students type in the Web
Code, then select E from the alphabet,
and then select Ralph Waldo Emerson.
398
15
20
25
Come see the north wind’s masonry.
Out of an unseen quarry evermore
Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer
Curves his white bastions with projected roof
Round every windward stake, or tree, or door.
Speeding, the myriad-handed, his wild work
So fanciful, so savage, nought cares he
For number or proportion. Mockingly,
On coop or kennel he hangs Parian1 wreaths;
A swan-like form invests the hidden thorn;
Fills up the farmer’s lane from wall to wall.
Vocabulary Builder
bastions (bas« chßnz) n.
fortifications
Maugre2 the farmer’s sighs; and at the gate
A tapering turret overtops the work.
And when his hours are numbered, and the world
Is all his own, retiring, as he were not,
Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art
To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone,
Built in an age, the mad wind’s nightwork,
The frolic architecture of the snow.
1. Parian (per« è ßn) adj. referring to a fine, white marble of the Greek city Paros.
2. Maugre (m®« gßr) prep. in spite of.
Critical Reading
1. Respond: How does your attitude toward snow compare with
Emerson’s?
2. (a) Recall: In the first stanza, what effect does the storm have on the
“sled and traveler,” the “courier,” and the “house mates”?
(b) Analyze: Explain what Emerson means when he refers to the
“tumultuous privacy of the storm” in line 9.
3. (a) Recall: In the second stanza, which words relate to the design and
construction of buildings? (b) Analyze: What do these words suggest
about the comparison the poet is making between the storm and an
architect or artist?
4. (a) Recall: According to lines 25–28, what has the storm left behind
“when the sun appears”? (b) Synthesize: Which aspects of Emerson’s
Transcendentalist beliefs does this image reflect?
5. Speculate: Emerson expresses a favorable attitude toward the
snowstorm. Why might some people living in northern climates not
share Emerson’s attitude?
398 ■ A Growing Nation (1800–1870)
For: More about Ralph
Waldo Emerson
Visit: www.PHSchool.com
Web Code: ere-9311