NCERT Textbook: Dust of Snow | English Class 10 PDF Download

 Page 1


Dust of Sno Dust of Sno Dust of Sno Dust of Sno Dust of Snow w w w w
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
ROBERT FROST
hemlock: A poisonous plant (tree) with small white flowers
rued: held in regret
This poem presents a moment that seems simple, but has a larger significance.
[Compare this other quotation from Robert Frost: “Always, always a larger
significance... A little thing touches a larger thing.”)
1. What is a “dust of snow”? What does the poet say has changed his mood?
How has the poet’s mood changed?
2. How does Frost present nature in this poem? The following questions may
help you to think of an answer.
(i) What are the birds that are usually named in poems? Do you think a
crow is often mentioned in poems? What images come to your mind
when you think of a crow?
(ii) Again, what is “a hemlock tree”?  Why doesn’t the poet write about a
more ‘beautiful’ tree such as a maple, or an oak, or a pine?
(iii) What do the ‘crow’ and ‘hemlock’ represent — joy or sorrow? What does
the dust of snow that the crow shakes off a hemlock tree stand for?
3. Have there been times when you felt depressed or hopeless? Have you
experienced a similar moment that changed your mood that day?
Reprint 2024-25
Page 2


Dust of Sno Dust of Sno Dust of Sno Dust of Sno Dust of Snow w w w w
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
ROBERT FROST
hemlock: A poisonous plant (tree) with small white flowers
rued: held in regret
This poem presents a moment that seems simple, but has a larger significance.
[Compare this other quotation from Robert Frost: “Always, always a larger
significance... A little thing touches a larger thing.”)
1. What is a “dust of snow”? What does the poet say has changed his mood?
How has the poet’s mood changed?
2. How does Frost present nature in this poem? The following questions may
help you to think of an answer.
(i) What are the birds that are usually named in poems? Do you think a
crow is often mentioned in poems? What images come to your mind
when you think of a crow?
(ii) Again, what is “a hemlock tree”?  Why doesn’t the poet write about a
more ‘beautiful’ tree such as a maple, or an oak, or a pine?
(iii) What do the ‘crow’ and ‘hemlock’ represent — joy or sorrow? What does
the dust of snow that the crow shakes off a hemlock tree stand for?
3. Have there been times when you felt depressed or hopeless? Have you
experienced a similar moment that changed your mood that day?
Reprint 2024-25
Some say the world will end in fire
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
ROBERT FROST
Fire and Ice Fire and Ice Fire and Ice Fire and Ice Fire and Ice
perish: die
suffice: be sufficient
1. There are many ideas about how the world will ‘end’. Do you think the world
will end some day? Have you ever thought what would happen if the sun got
so hot that it ‘burst’, or grew colder and colder?
2. For Frost, what do ‘fire’ and ‘ice’ stand for? Here are some ideas:
greed avarice cruelty lust
conflict fury intolerance rigidity
insensitivity coldness indifference hatred
3. What is the rhyme scheme of the poem? How does it help in bringing out the
contrasting ideas in the poem?
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