London Snow Literary Elements

The narrator of the poem is unidentified but appears to be a Londoner. At the same time, they have an omniscient point of view, which allows for unlimited movement through time and space as well as the ability to enter into the thoughts of characters.

Modified terza rima with no consistent meter.

Snow is metaphorically described as "crystal manna," a biblical allusion that links the snow to a divine or benevolent source. Day-to-day urban life is metaphorically described as a "charm," suggesting that it is artificial and illusory. The workers' struggle to walk through the snow is metaphorically described as a war, adding to the poem's personification of the snow.

The snow's soft, relaxed fall is evoked with the softness of alliterative Ls, Ss, and Rs in the lines "Stealthily and perpetually settling and loosely lying" and "Silently sifting and veiling road, roof and railing" In contrast, hard alliterative "T" sounds evoke the harshness of daily work and life in the lines "And trains of sombre men, past tale of number,/Tread long brown paths, as toward their toil they go"

The speaker refers to daily life in the city as a "charm," unexpectedly and ironically suggesting that the mundane is magical (and therefore unreal) while the fairytale-like atmosphere created by the snow reflects a truer reality.

Lyric poetry, pastoral

London in the late 19th century

Joyful, reverent

Protagonist: the residents of London. Antagonist: industry and urban life

London's workers face a conflict between the mundanity of daily life and work and the beauty and mystery of nature. Ultimately, the latter wins out, though not in a straightforward way: the workers' bodies continue to participate in their labor even while their minds are liberated from their circumstances.

The climax occurs in the poem's closing lines, when it is revealed that London's workers have been (mentally) freed from and enlightened about the fundamentally artificial nature of postindustrial life.

The poem's opening phrase, "When men were all asleep," foreshadows the eventual coming of day and the involvement of humans.

The word "manna" is a reference to the Bible, in which God provides the Israelites with sustenance in the form of a substance called manna. "Paul's high dome" alludes to St. Paul's Cathedral, a well-known London landmark.

“No sound of wheel rumbling nor of foot falling” uses synecdoche to reference the city’s transportation infrastructure and its people, respectively. Similarly, "The eye marveled" uses eyes as a synecdochic reference to people.

Although the most frequent and obvious use of personification in the poem is in the attribution of human traits such as stealth and laziness to the snow itself, it is also used to describe the behavior of the sun: " When now already the sun, in pale display / Standing by Paul’s high dome, spread forth below / His sparkling beams, and awoke the stir of the day."

Bridges uses hyperbole frequently, in phrases like "all woke earlier," and "no sound of wheel rumbling," which generalize in order to convey the impact of the snow on the city.

The word "creak" onopatopoetically recalls the sound of a groaning cart.