Snowdrop by Ted Hughes appeared in his second collection of poems lupacal in 1960 Hughes takes this title from the Pagan lupacalia fertility Festival of ancient Rome which was held annually on the 15th of February as such images and symbols associated with this festival and this time of year run throughout the poems in this collection the Snowdrop with its characteristic single small white drooping bell-shaped flower is a Hardy plant that blooms in early February and is known despite its delicate appearance for its ability to push through even the hardest snow-covered ground in this very brief poem Hughes builds up a picture of the harshness of winter the world appears dead shrunken and shriveled while the mouse is tucked away in its nest although not hibernating its life force is nonetheless muted those creatures who still roam the outside world the weasel and the crow are out of kilter lacking not only a sense of Vitality but also a sense of rationality seemingly caused by grief at the sight of death all around them the Snowdrop however is driven by a sense of purpose as she has bloomed in conditions which cannot be seen by any stretch of the imagination as conducive to New Life there is an implication however that despite her delicate appearance she is made of Sterner stuff as brutal as the constellations of stars in the night sky that she has been born under in his refusal to romanticize Nature Hughes instead explores the themes of resilience and survival in a harsh and unforgiving natural landscape the poem comprises one single stanza of eight lines varying in length from five syllables to 11. although it has no fixed metrical or rhythmic structure there is overall a very ponderous rhythm caused by the prevalence of stressed syllables with most lines starting and ending on them additionally hughes's use of Enchantment and scissora in conjunction with the differing line lengths creates a discordant feel the out of kilter Rhythm and form mirroring the jarring atmosphere his description of Oaks plosive sounds as well as nasal um sounds and long vowel sounds also predominate to further enhance the poem's downbeat tone there's a rhyme scheme of rhyming couplets iea a b b c c d d although this is very easy to miss as Hughes employs half or slant rhyme in the first three couplets which is where there is consonants or a repetition of final consonant sounds I.E tight and heart brass and darkness and minds and ends and alliteration which is where there is a repetition of initial stressed consonant sounds I.E month and metal in the final couplet at only eight lines long the poem is extremely brief seeming to be a shrunken and withered in its form as the season it is describing as in his poem the Jaguar Hughes spends time in this case the first five and a half lines or nearly three quarters of the poem building up a backdrop against which the eponymous Snowdrop is only then introduced creating not only a sense of anticipation but also a heightened sense of contrast it is written in the present tense which gives it a sense of immediacy as though the speaker is speaking as it is happening Hughes employs anthropomorphism throughout which is where non-human entities display literal human traits and are capable of human behavior we must always remember that this says more about the writer's attitudes and beliefs than what the thing being described is like in reality the title Snowdrop is the only explicit reference that Hughes makes to the poem subject matter the name Snowdrop is said to derive from the German schneidhofen meaning Snowdrop which referred to a teardrop shaped Pearl Earring worn by fashionable ladies in the 16th and 17th centuries they've also historically been known as Fair Maids of February and candle Miss Bells note how the first two of these names attribute the flower with female qualities and associations well the last one links their shape with the metallic bells that are rung out to celebrate the religious feast of candlemus which occurs on the 2nd of February every year the poem begins now is the globe shrunk tight round the mouse's dulled wintering heart the globe here refers to the Earth and seems to allude to the way in which during winter the landscape appears drained of life-giving sap as Nature has retreated into the ground closing in on itself making the whole world seem shriveled and withered note the use of anastrophy in the first line which is where the normal order of words in a clause or sentence has been inverted or switched around I.E now is the globe shrunk tight rather than now the globish shrunk tight not only does this give the poem an archaic and solemn feel but it also more specifically brings to mind the opening Soliloquy of William Shakespeare's Richard III now is the winter of our discontent Additionally the addiction of this line is also reminiscent of John Dunn's 17th century poem A nocturnal and Saint Lucy's day being the shortest day written at midnight on the longest night of the year in which he describes in the first stanza the way in which the whole world sap is sunk and that life is shrunk winter has forced itself on the mouse constricting its heartbeat round the mouse's dulled wintering heart the adjective dulled here means muted and muffled while the adjective wintering comes from the verb to Winter meaning to spend the winter in a particular place the mouse is keeping itself warm in its nest although mice do not hibernate its heart rate and breathing appear to be slowing right down to conserve its energy note the prevalence of stressed syllables in the opening two lines now is the globe shrunk tight rather Mouse's dulled wintering heart because English is a stressed time language which is where stressed syllables are set at approximately regular intervals irrespective of the quantity of intervening unstressed syllables the three adjacent stressed syllables in the first line and the two in the second have the effect of slowing the pace of the line down to enhance the mouse's decreasing heartbeat and inertia the phrase dulled wintering heart can also be understood metaphorically as suggesting that the mouse feels dispirited and heavy-hearted by the harshness of the season Hughes continues weaseland Crow as if molded in brass move through an outer Darkness those animals who are still out and about in the world the weaseland crow roam uneasily through the gloomy landscape the simile as if molded in brass suggests cold solidity and a lack of flexibility and vibrancy they're not in their right Minds with the other deaths through Hughes is anthropomorphizing of these animals He suggests that rather than taking the adversity of the season in their stride they are disorientated from grieving for what we would otherwise see as the normal dying back of the natural world all around them note how he creates a jagged Rhythm here with the Short five-syllable Line not in their right Minds with a sentence ending in the middle of the next line with the other deaths creating a suzura which in another example of form reflecting meaning Works in combination to create a disorientating feel the eponymous Snowdrop is introduced in the middle of the sixth line after the suzura note how Hughes does not refer to it by name preferring instead the anthropomorphizing pronoun she which seems to allude to the dainty and delicate appearance of the flower itself and the names by which it has been called historically she too pursues her ends in other words she too has her own objectives which she seems determined to achieve the way Hughes has her appear to insert herself midline rather than neatly at the beginning of a new line seems to suggest this clear single-mindedness of purpose that she will come at a time that suits her which contrasts with the apparent derangement and aimlessness of the other creatures this is further enhanced by his use of the epithet brutal to describe her in the simile brutal as the stars of this month the use of the adjective brutal here is oxymoronic as we tend traditionally to ascribe brutality or ruthlessness and savageness to males rather than females the simile links the Snowdrop to the stars of this month which could evoke the way stars in a clear Winter's Night Sky when there is a frost seem cold and harsh it could also have a be alluding to the constellations of the stars that are present in the night sky in February and under which she has been born these are most notably Orion the Hunter and Canis Major his hunting dog figures which could also be described as brutal the poem concludes with the simile her pale head heavy is metal which visually evokes the way the single head of the flower droops towards the ground as though it is a bell weight down by the material from which it is made note how once again Hughes ascribes what appears to be a delicate flower with unexpectedly harsh qualities use sound patterning here also enhances the image not only do we have a prevalence of stressed syllables again her pale head heavy as metal the three one after the other slowing the reader right down the alliteration of the aspirated in head heavy which seems to evoke a sigh and the assonant e in head heavy as metal also give the line a feeling of weightiness we're left with an image of a flower whose dainty outward appearance belies her in a strength and Steely resilience which enables her to overcome and even thrive in an unforgiving landscape thanks for watching if you have any questions please let me know in the comments section below and I'll do my best to answer them don't forget to subscribe to my channel for more videos on English language topics and exam techniques and English literature texts