Analysis of Snow

David Berman 1967 (Williamsburg)



Walking through a field with my little brother Seth

I pointed to a place where kids had made angels in the snow.
For some reason, I told him that a troop of angels
had been shot and dissolved when they hit the ground.

He asked who had shot them and I said a farmer.

Then we were on the roof of the lake.
The ice looked like a photograph of water.

Why he asked. Why did he shoot them.

I didn't know where I was going with this.

They were on his property, I said.

When it's snowing, the outdoors seem like a room.

Today I traded hellos with my neighbor.
Our voices hung close in the new acoustics.
A room with the walls blasted to shreds and falling.

We returned to our shoveling, working side by side in silence.

But why were they on his property, he asked.


Scheme X XXX A XA X X X X AXX X X
Poetic Form
Metre 101011110101 110101111110001 1110111101110 11100111101 111111011010 110101101 0111010110 11111111 11011111011 101110011 11100111101 0111011110 101011001010 011011011010 1011101010111010 11011110011
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 741
Words 149
Sentences 15
Stanzas 11
Stanza Lengths 1, 3, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 3, 1, 1
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 37
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 53
Words per stanza (avg) 14
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Submitted on September 11, 2018

Modified on May 03, 2023

45 sec read
1,012

David Berman

He is a poet, a singer and songwriter, and a cartoonist! Talk about talented! He has worked with the indie-rock band the Silver Jews. more…

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