The Hunter in the Snow by William Carlos Williams

The Hunter in the Snow

by William Carlos Williams

The over-all picture is winter

icy mountains

in the background the return

from the hunt it is toward evening

from the left

sturdy hunters lead in

their pack the inn-sign

hanging from a

broken hinge is a stag a crucifix

between his antlers the cold

inn yard is

deserted but for a huge bonfire

that flares wind-driven tended by

women who cluster

about it to the right beyond

the hill is a pattern of skaters

Brueghel the painter

concerned with it all has chosen

a winter-struck bush for his

foreground to

complete the picture

The Hunters in the Snow By Pieter Bruegel the Elder (oil painting on wood panel, 1565)

This famous painting gives us a glimpse of life in a Netherlands' winter. WCW is far from the only writer to be moved to write about this haunting piece of art. And this is also just one of Bruegel the Elder's paintings to be the inspiration of so much other writing.

There are many ways to write poems about art; such pieces are called ekphrastic poems. Williams chose to describe the painting in simple terms, but that simplicity mirrors the coldness of the art work.

The poem starts with a great first line: "The over-all picture is winter." You may at first reading think, well, duh, but look at it again. Williams uses "winter" as if it is a known, universally agreed upon description. Winter is, of course, very different not only due to geography but also from perspective. And yet, looking at the painting, one must agree--yes, overall this IS winter.

Williams' jagged lines, disconcerting line breaks, and a lack of punctuation seem to mimic those mountains in the background. We can see they are not only icy, but ragged, sharp--very uninvitaing.

The poet then provides us with two opposing reactions to winter: there are women (and others; the women stand out because they are red and blue and in the foreground; the other skaters are indistinguishable) ice-skating, presumably enjoying the cold and there are women under a broken sign, in front of a deserted inn warming themselves by an open fire.

The hunters are sturdy, the women cluster, and the skaters are patterned. Williams is very frugal with his adjectives throughout.

The ending is where he draws us to what he sees as the focus of the painting:

Brueghel the painter

concerned with it all has chosen

a winter-struck bush for his

foreground to

complete the picture

That yellow, bare, somewhat straggly plant is what Williams wants us to leave his poem, and the painting, thinking about. Why?

The only other place that yellow is seen in this painting is the fire. The only other "bright" colors are the dresses of two of the women skating, the red and the blue I mentioned earlier. So this bush is a literal bright spot.

I think it is a figurative one as well. The plant has leaves or buds--whatever it has, it is alive. It is living through the snow and the cold. The hunt has only produced one deer. The river is so frozen people can skate on it. The inn does not seem to be bringing in much business. Things are not looking so good. But there is this little bush providing a bit of color and hope.

Williams' poem captures the icy chill that Bruegel the Elder captured in his painting, 397 years later. Both should be tured to owhen you are feeling hot and miserable during the dog days of summer!