Cynthia in the Snow

Brooks uses onomatopoeia, or the use of words which imitate the sound of what is being described to pull the reader into the world of the poem’s speaker, a young Black girl named Cynthia. Through Cynthia’s eyes, we hear the snow as it “SUSHES” (Line 1) and “hushes” (Line 2), words that approximate the sound made by snow blowing in the wind. The sibilants in both words are also an onomatopoeic reference to the quietness of a snow-covered city. Snow, particularly piled up on the ground, can often have a sound-insulating effect, as well, quieting or “hushing” entire neighborhoods.

Alliteration, repetition of the first letter or sound in adjacent or closely connected words, gives “Cynthia in the Snow” a musical quality. The poetic device first appears in the lines “And laughs away from me. / It laughs a lovely whiteness” (Lines 5-6), where the repeating syllable la sounds an echo of a children’s song refrain. Brooks then uses alliteration again, repeating the w sound in the description of snow as it “whitely whirls away” (Line 7).