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Spring Snow
Tyrant Winter reaches
Beyond its frozen tomb,
Dares cast its icy mantle
On bud and crocus-bloom.
Long it reigned unchallenged
In dark and cold and ice;
Thwarted now, it hurls back
Last volleys as it flies.
Spent, it fails to muster
Its once-destroying blast;
Failing snows fall gently,
Not to chill or last.
Lazily they flutter
In heavy, half-mild air,
Listless, almost hopeful
To dissolve soon there.
Winter’s once-dread arrows
Waft softly, twirl with glee,
Weakened by Spring’s onslaught
To pleasant mockery.
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Adam Sedia (b. 1984) lives in his native Northwest Indiana and practices law as a civil and appellate litigator. He has published four books of poetry and his poems, essays, and fiction have appeared in various literary journals. He is also a composer, and his musical works may be heard on his YouTube channel.
“Failing snows fall gently” is a lovely line to undercut forceful words in your battle song, Adam. Winter’s retreating volleys and arrows can’t muster much against Spring’s onslaught. With the “once-destroying blast” reduced to “pleasant mockery,” a light trimeter is apropos. Line by line, the rhythm is complex, usually trochaic in odd-numbered lines, iambic in even-numbered, but with substitutions. Spring snow itself may be lazy and listless, but you show most attentive care in creating this piece.
Thank you for appreciating the attention that goes into these shorter song-like poems. I find they often occupy the most time to reach a satisfactory state of completion. As for the theme, anyone from the Midwest will know that last final blast of snow that dismays at first, but upon closer examination has lost all of its former bite (maybe there’s a political analogy there, too, but I’ll leave that to the readers).
I enjoyed this well-rhymed poem on the changing of seasons and the personification in a sense of winter’s last feeble flurries while surrendering to that which is to come.
Thank you, Roy!
Tyrant winter. Love it. And you extended the image all the way to the end of a fine poem without falter, to an ending of optimism.
I read this yesterday in the wrong mood. I’m so glad I came back to it.
Thanks for the read, Adam.
Thank you for re-reading. I take it as a high compliment that you came back to it after being in the wrong mood (hopefully not related to the weather).
Your image of the tyrant reaching “beyond its frozen tomb” is a great one. I’m so glad that we can now pleasantly mock winter. Lovely poem!
Thank you, Cynthia. Like any tyrant whose power is waning (which we can see all around us), the most immediate and appropriate reaction is indeed mockery.
This is a delightful poem, Adam — deceptively simple and yet both beautiful and ever-so slightly sardonic as we observe Winter’s once-formidable but now fatally-weakened state. I love the theme — that last gasp of Tyrant Winter as he tries to regain power and fails. The use of military imagery here is inspired. I am reminded of those passages in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when Narnia’s long winter ends as it is finally freed of the grip of the White Witch.
Thank you, Brian. I never drew the Narnia connection, but I think that’s an apt (and flattering) comparison. As I said replying to Margaret, there may be a political analogy here, too, but I wrote this long before the events of the last few months. The military imagery, though, was inspired by how the Midwestern winter feels. Tyrannical indeed.
Beautiful imagery and a strong closing stanza. Great work, Adam!
Thank you!