Dust of Snow
Robert Frost reciting “Dust of Snow”:
[Audio https://poemshape.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/dust-of-snow.mp3%5D
Iambic: Unstressed syllable followed by a stressed Syllable.
Dimeter: Two Metrical Feet per line.
This lovely little poem is written in two stanzas. The rhyme of each Stanza is called a Cross Rhyme, Interlocking Rhyme, or Alternating Rhyme scheme.
Frost varies the iambic foot with anapestic feet in the first foot of the fourth line, the second foot of the fifth line and in both feet of the final line. The majority of the metrical feet are iambic, however, which is why this poem would be considered Iambic Dimeter.
Anapests are considered a variant foot when found in an Iambic Pattern.
And that’s that.
For more information on any of these terms, visit my post on the basics of scansion.
And, for another poem in Iambic Dimeter, check out my own poem: A February Bat.
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