Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The Cross Of Snow"

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The Cross of Snow"

In the long, sleepless watches of the night,
A gentle face--the face of one long dead--
Looks at me from the wall, where round its head
The night-lamp casts a halo of pale light.
Here in this room she died, and soul more white
Never through martyrdom of fire was led
To its repose; nor can in books be read
The legend of a life more benedight.
There is a mountain in the distant West
That, sun-defying, in its deep ravines
Displays a cross of snow upon its side.
Such is the cross I wear upon my breast
These eighteen years, through all the changing scenes
And seasons, changeless since the day she died. / Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's wife died tragically when an ember from the fireplace caught her dress on fire and burnt her so badly that she died a few days later. Longfellow tried to put out the fire, and it is said that his face was so badly disfigured that he grew the familiar long beard to hide the scars.
Eighteen years later he was looking at a book with pictures of the far west and the mountains when he came across a picture much like the one reproduced here. The poem that resulted is "The Cross of Snow," one of his most poignant and touching sonnets.

ANSWER IN COMPLETE SENTENCES FOR CREDIT!

1.  The phrase, “Watches of the night” usually refers to the rounds made by a guard. What does the phrase mean in line 1?

2.  The image “martyrdom of fire” in line 6 might confuse readers who do not know that Longfellow’s wife died in a fire. (A martyr is a person who dies for his or her faith. Many early Christian martyrs were burned to death.) What is Longfellow suggesting about his wife’s character by using this powerful image? What other image reinforces this characterization of his wife as saintly?

3.  Explain how sun-defying (line 10) suggests conditions of weather and/or geology that might actually produce a permanent cross of snow on the side of a mountain. How does the poet relate this idea to his own feeling of grief?

4.  Why might Longfellow have chosen to use a cross as the symbol of his grief?

5.  Longfellow chose to write “The Cross of Snow” as a Petrarchan sonnet. Identify the rhyme scheme of the sonnet. What question or idea does the Octave (lines 1-8) present? What answer does the sestet (lines 9-14) offer?

6.  What is the meaning of the cross on the speaker’s chest?

7.  How would you describe the scene in your own words?

8.  Which line signals a change (turn) in the poem’s focus?