Snow By Louis MacNeice: Meaning And Analysis

Another week another top Irish poem. This week is the first appearance of Louis MacNeice.nbsp;

You might not have heard of Louis MacNeice but he was born in Belfast, Ireland and educated at Oxford, MacNeice came of age with his 1939 volume Autumn Journal. For many years a radio dramatist and producer for the BBC.

What is the poem Snow about?

Good question! Some people have said it is about the way things are and the nature of reality and then others say it is about finding beauty in complicated things in life.

I particularly like the line:

World is crazier and more of it than we think,

But what do you think the meaning behind this great poem is, comment below. It comes in at number 39 on the top 100 Irish poems list.

Now let’s take a closer look at the poem.nbsp;

Snow, By Louis MacNeice

World is suddener than we fancy it.

Snow is set in a warm room where a big bay window frames falling snow outside and pink roses inside. The two sit side by side yet belong to different worlds, and that simple contrast sets the poet thinking about how varied and surprising life is.

The poem is alive with the senses: taste, sight, sound and touch all crowd in at once. MacNeice delights in the way things refuse to fit into one neat system, and he suggests that what separates things runs deeper than the window between them.

MacNeice later said the poem was about realising that one thing is different from another. He wrote it in January 1935, and it appeared that year in his collection Poems (Faber).

Read the full poem: Snow by Louis MacNeice at the Poetry Foundation. You will also find it in The Collected Poems of Louis MacNeice (Faber).

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