Entry 30: Image of Grief

Romantic poets often use aspects of nature to express emotions that might be too painful or personal to state directly. In "The Cross of Snow," Longfellow takes a dramatic scene in nature and transforms it into a powerful image conveying intense grief. Why do you think he chose that particular scene? How does it represent his emotions? Think of an image from nature that you could use to describe or represent a feeling of great sorrow. Set up your comparison like a metaphor: "Grief is . . ." Then, explore how grief is like the image you have chosen.

• Longfellow chose the particular scene of the crossed shaped snow in the mountain to convey his intense grief because he wants to convey that his grief is extremely deep, and too cold to be melted by the heat and warmth of the sun. The deepness is represented by the "deep ravines" that are very deep down into the mountain and cannot be shone on by the sunlight. The coldness is of course represented by the snow itself. The cross shaped of the snow gives up a insight of Longfellow's opinions of his wife - he believes that she is someone that is very special and has even become a holy figure. This is a very smart way of representing his emotions, the grief cause by his wife's death. Great sorrow and grief can be conveyed by many different examples. Here are two. The first one is "Grief is raining like there's no tomorrow". This symbolizes (for religious people) that God is crying with them because of the tragedy. The second one is "Grief is like that falling of leaves and autumn enters winters". This represents that happiness is "falling away" and leaving people, and all that's left is to suffer.