Snow (Symbol)
Snow, in this poem, symbolizes the natural world. Its fall is effortless: the author conveys this effortlessness through verbs like "drift." But in spite of its relaxedness, the snow is powerful, able to obscure and disrupt a carefully constructed city. Its presence is used to demonstrate the latent but ever-present dominance of nature, as well as of nature's capacity to bring joy and liberation to those able to access it. The snow certainly brings joy and liberation to the schoolchildren who play in it, as well as to the workers who are able, following the snowfall, to forget their concerns and troubles.
St. Paul's Cathedral (Symbol)
St. Paul's Cathedral is the only London landmark that stands out in the snow, and it symbolizes religion—or, more precisely, religion as a site of convergence for the human and the natural. The poem repeatedly suggests that snow, as a symbol of nature, has a divine element. For instance, it is referred to as "manna" in an allusion to the Bible (in which God provides sustenance to the Israelites in the form of a substance called manna). The Cathedral, a building used for Christian worship, is not covered by the snow but instead becomes part of the new, snowy London landscape. This suggests that a preindustrial, religious urban life is different from a postindustrial, secular one, and that a man-made structure like a cathedral is not out of harmony with natural or divine forces.
