SNOW BY WALTER DE LA MARE

Hi Centurion and welcome.  For what it's worth, (poetry can have many overlaid meanings), here is the image I get.  Everything is covered in snow - a pale sunbeam from the setting sun gets through - a robin sitting up on a branch is hit by the ray and the dazzle on its feathers, probably gold or red from the winter sunset, gives a fire effect. The robin is on a high branch so the fire effect is seen against the darkening sky and a misty moon.  Hope this helps.  I have loved the poetry of WdlM since my childhood but this one is new to me.

Thank you mozziecat. Your comment about "Everything is covered in Snow" generates answer question. Centred on "And blade and thorn" I  got the meaning that Snow took no prisoners despite there danger.

What do you think?

Regards

Centurion

PS This peom is in the LAMDA Anthology

PPS

I believe folklore has it that the Robin got a red breast from standing from fire.  Also what's your take on "Ghosts the Moon"

Wow, Centurion, the more I think about this the more I see. (Reason why I love the poems so much). I think your connection with the red breast is spot on, the ray from the sun making it glow like fire and the legendary connection. (Saving souls in purgatory from the fires of Hell)(There's also a legend that connects the red breast with blood from Jesus on the cross but I don't see any connection to this in the poem - unless you get an allusion to the light/warmth of Christmas in the cold of winter - but I think,myself that this probably stretches the imagery too far. It's a case of how far do you want to go.

I think the "Ghosts the moon" is just a picture of the moon looking ghostly through the snow, and perhaps with an icy "halo" round it like you get in winter sometimes.  However, it adds to my picture, because it takes my eyes up to the sky, and indicates that the robin is high on a branch, singing from on high its victory over the winter. This is even more powerful given your comment about the snow even defeating blade and thorn - and actually this might make a meaningful connection to the blood legend. You can easily check out sources for this on the internet.  Just put "Robin, blood, legend" or similar into. Google.  I hope you do well in your exams.

Interesting how a few words easily bring out a vision.  'His lonely tune' - what an apt description of the robin's winter song that always seems melancholic compared to the notes he utters come spring.