"The Buck in the Snow" is a poem by American poet and playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay, first published in a collection of the same title in 1928. In the poem, the speaker recalls seeing a strong, vivacious-looking a buck and doe—a male and female deer—earlier in the evening, only to then be confronted with the buck's body lying dead in the snow. The poem is about the fragility and unpredictability of life.

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• “The Buck in the Snow” Summary

• “The Buck in the Snow” Themes

  • 

    The Fragility of Life

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-12

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Buck in the Snow”

  • Lines 1-3

    White sky, over ...
    ... in the apple-orchard?

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 3-5

    I saw them. ...
    ... bowed with snow.

    

    

    

    

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  • Line 6

    Now lies he ... scalding the snow.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 7-8

    How strange a ...
    ... in the snow.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 9-11

    How strange a ...
    ... feather of snow—

    

    

    

    

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  • Line 12

    Life, looking out ... of the doe.

    

    

    

    

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• “The Buck in the Snow” Symbols

  • 

    Snow

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “White sky,” “hemlocks bowed with snow,”
    • Line 5: “the wood of hemlocks bowed with snow.”
    • Line 6: “his wild blood scalding the snow.”
    • Line 8: “The buck in the snow.”
    • Lines 10-11: “Under the heavy hemlocks that as the moments pass / Shift their loads a little, letting fall a feather of snow—”
  • 

    The Antlered Buck

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Line 2: “antlered buck”
    • Lines 4-5: “long leaps lovely and slow, / Over the stone-wall”
    • Line 6: “Now lies he here, his wild blood scalding the snow.”
    • Lines 7-8: “How strange a thing is death, bringing to his knees, bringing to his antlers / The buck in the snow.”

• “The Buck in the Snow” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Imagery

    

    

    

    

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    Where imagery appears in the poem:

    • Line 1
    • Lines 2-3
    • Lines 3-5
    • Line 6
    • Lines 7-8
    • Lines 10-12

  • Repetition

    

    

    

    

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    Where repetition appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “hemlocks bowed with snow”
    • Line 3: “ I saw them. I saw them”
    • Line 5: “hemlocks bowed with snow”
    • Line 6: “snow”
    • Line 7: “How strange a thing,” “bringing to his knees, bringing to his antlers”
    • Line 8: “snow”
    • Line 9: “How strange a thing”
    • Line 10: “hemlocks”
    • Line 11: “snow”

  • Caesura

    

    

    

    

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    Where caesura appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “sky, over”
    • Line 3: “apple-orchard? I,” “them. I”
    • Line 4: “up, with”
    • Line 6: “here, his”
    • Line 7: “death, bringing,” “knees, bringing”
    • Line 9: “thing,—a,” “now, it”
    • Line 11: “little, letting”

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “sky,” “snow”
    • Line 2: “Saw,” “beginning,” “buck”
    • Line 3: “Standing,” “saw,” “saw,” “suddenly”
    • Line 4: “long,” “leaps,” “lovely,” “slow”
    • Line 5: “stone,” “wall,” “wood,” “with,” “snow”
    • Line 6: “lies,” “he,” “here,” “his,” “scalding,” “snow”
    • Line 7: “bringing,” “bringing”
    • Line 8: “buck”
    • Line 9: “mile,” “by,” “may,” “be”
    • Line 10: “heavy,” “hemlocks”
    • Line 11: “loads,” “little,” “letting,” “fall,” “feather”
    • Line 12: “Life,” “looking”

  • Consonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where consonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “White,” “sky,” “bowed,” “with,” “snow”
    • Line 2: “Saw,” “not,” “beginning,” “evening,” “antlered,” “buck”
    • Line 3: “Standing,” “apple,” “saw,” “saw,” “suddenly”
    • Line 4: “up,” “long,” “leaps,” “lovely,” “slow”
    • Line 5: “Over,” “stone-wall,” “wood,” “hemlocks,” “bowed,” “with,” “snow”
    • Line 6: “lies,” “he,” “here,” “his,” “wild,” “blood,” “scalding,” “snow”
    • Line 7: “strange,” “thing,” “death,” “bringing,” “knees,” “bringing,” “antlers”
    • Line 8: “buck”
    • Line 9: “mile,” “by,” “may,” “be”
    • Line 10: “heavy,” “hemlocks,” “moments”
    • Line 11: “Shift,” “loads,” “little,” “letting,” “fall,” “feather,” “snow”
    • Line 12: “Life,” “looking,” “out,” “attentive,” “from”

  • Assonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where assonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “White,” “sky,” “over,” “snow”
    • Line 2: “beginning,” “evening,” “antlered,” “and,” “doe”
    • Line 3: “Standing,” “go”
    • Line 4: “leaps,” “lovely,” “slow”
    • Line 5: “Over,” “stone,” “snow”
    • Line 6: “lies,” “wild”
    • Line 7: “thing,” “is,” “bringing,” “his,” “bringing,” “his”
    • Line 9: “strange,” “mile,” “away,” “by,” “may,” “be”
    • Line 10: “heavy,” “hemlocks,” “that,” “as,” “moments,” “pass”
    • Line 11: “loads,” “letting,” “feather,” “snow”
    • Line 12: “Life,” “eyes,” “doe”

  • Enjambment

    

    

    

    

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    Where enjambment appears in the poem:

    • Lines 2-3: “doe / Standing”
    • Lines 7-8: “antlers / The”
    • Lines 10-11: “pass / Shift”

  • Personification

    

    

    

    

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    Where personification appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-3: “White sky, over the hemlocks bowed with snow, / Saw you not at the beginning of evening the antlered buck and his doe / Standing in the apple-orchard?”
    • Line 12: “Life, looking out attentive from the eyes of the doe.”

• “The Buck in the Snow” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Hemlocks
  • Antlered
  • Buck
  • Doe
  • Scalding
  • Attentive
  • (Location in poem: Line 1: “hemlocks”; Line 10: “hemlocks”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Buck in the Snow”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “The Buck in the Snow” Speaker

• “The Buck in the Snow” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “The Buck in the Snow”

• More “The Buck in the Snow” Resources

  • External Resources

    • A Musical Adaptation — Listen to a musical adaptation of the entire poem.

    • The Poem Out Loud — Listen to a reading of the entire poem.

    • Millay's Biography — Read more about Millay's life, courtesy of the Edna St. Vincent Millay Society.

    • Millay's Legacy — Read about the ways in which Millay and her work are perceived today.

    • A Poet's Lecture on Millay — Listen to renowned poet Eavan Boland read aloud and lecture on the poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay.

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay

    • First Fig

    • I, Being born a Woman and Distressed (Sonnet 41)

    • Pity me not because the light of day (Sonnet 29)

    • Recuerdo

    • What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why (Sonnet 43)

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