The Hard Frost’ by C. Day. Lewis

This poem was a poem describing the beautiful scene the poet saw one day he woke up in winter morning. Besides portraying the stunning scenery, the poet also wanted to relate the transformation in nature to human life cycle.

The most prominent imagery used was snow, for example, brilliant, white, diamonds, bridal gear Things used to describe the hard frost were beautiful, shiny and bright. These were used to portray a beautiful scene of white snow spreading all over the forest. Usually the forest in Winter gave people a sense of cruelty, harshness and lifeless, but after having a white frost coating on the dead trees, mountains, everything seemed to become glamorous and attractiveAlso, personification was used, like the dry and dead forest coating with shiny, white frost was personified as a raw country maid wearing a borrowed bridal gear for a few hours. As a raw country maid wasnt that beautiful, but, after she wore the white bridal gear, she shined brightly. The poet wanted to show the contrast between the forest before and after coating with the frost by personifying it, to make the shape contrast stood out from the poem to get readers attention. At the same time, he conveyed that this beautiful scene didnt last long.

After using the imagery to show how beautiful the scene was, the poet also indicated that this scene had only lasted for a short period of time, because after the sun rose, the frost melted. Though the poet was a bit disappointed that the frost melted so quickly, but he found out that after the frost melted, it was also the time for new seeds to grow, it was shown by grip on the seed and lets our future breathe.

Throughout the poem, besides portraying how beautiful the hard frost coating on the forest was, the poet also wanted to show us that after a cold and harsh Winter(maybe it wasnt that harsh), it was also the time for seeds to grow and bloom. Applied it to human, though there were illnesses and deaths which caused unhappiness to human, but after these hard times, which wouldnt last long, there would be new lives coming up and replace the old ones and bring new hope and joy to human. In between the death and lives, maybe human could learn more and experience more than the usual times, so, passing through difficult times might indicate a new birth or hope to ourselves. So try looking forward in our life and appreciate everything we see, we hear and experience. It was also the most important message the poet wanted to bring out through the poem