Teatime Tuesday Poetry

White Fields
by James Stephens

In the winter time we go
Walking in the fields of snow;
Where there is no grass at all;
Where the top of every wall,
Every fence and every tree,
Is as white, as white can be.

Pointing out the way we came,
Everyone of them the same--
All across the fields there be
Prints in silver filigree;
And our mothers always know,
By our footprints in the snow,
Where the children go.

The first stanza of this poem contains some visual imagery, but we talked about the hyperbole in the 3rd verse- “Where there is no grass at all.” A hyperbole is an exaggeration for effect. (I could eat a whole horse.) We know that there is grass under the snow. Instead of saying that you can’t see the dead grass because it is covered with snow, it creates a more effective visual image of a winter snowfall to say that there is no grass.

In the second stanza the footprints are personified in the first verse where they are said to be pointing. It is then followed by another hyperbole. “Every one of them the same.” Logically, we know that this is not true, but we can understand that when we view many little footprints heading in the same direction we don’t make a distinction between them.

“Prints in silver filigree” is a lovely metaphor in the second stanza. The edges of a footprint in the snow glitter like silver filigree. We know that the footprint isn’t literally silver filigree, but keeping the comparison as a brief metaphor creates an attractive image, flows smoothly, and is in better keeping with the poem than a longer simile or analogy would be.

Can you rewrite the second stanza in prose without the personification, hyperbole, and metaphor?

Our mothers can deduce where we children are by looking at the footprints we left in the snow.

Humph! That doesn’t create a visual image and therefore certainly isn’t as interesting to read. As my 16yo said, “Compared to the poem, that is one lame sentence.”

Where the top of every wall,
Every fence and every tree,
Is as white, as white can be.


And our mothers always know,
By our footprints in the snow,
Where the children go.

Duncan and Mei leaving plenty of footprints!