Winter Solstice 2023—Falling Snowflakes

​           It’s almost the Winter Solstice, and I’m again writing and whiling away the darkness with music, projects, crafts, and hobbies. I’m also working on a somewhat experimental book for my next publication, and thought a chapter from that book might fit this year’s solstice nicely. Here is a chapter from this new book: Sing Me a Song, Take Me Along.
 
Chapter 34: Wintery Images (Gordon Lightfoot’s “Song for a Winter’s Night”)
            The act of rereading a good book is often a very personal and experiential journey. When someone asks, for instance, why a reader returns to a work of fiction and rereads it cover to cover, the reply is often that they love to relive the story, revel in the descriptive settings, and reacquant themselves with all the characters and situations.
There are many songs that are stories as well, and equally worthy of “rereading” time and again. This is the case with Gordon Lightfoot’s “Song for a Winter’s Night.” The song is loaded with intimate emotion and imagery, and the speaker of the poem experiences a quintessential loneliness and longing that most of us have experienced ourselves and some of us know very well.
                Lightfoot’s susurrant alliteration enhances the pensive mood within this poem.  This is particularly evident in the lines The snow is softly falling, / The air is still within the silence of my room where the “s” sound acts to enhance the whisper of falling snow and the subdued nature of winter’s silence. The speaker’s deeply felt sadness settles in the lines The lamp is burning low / my fire is growing dim, and my glass is almost empty. And the mystery of why this speaker is alone is even hinted at with I read again between the lines upon each page.  The emotions encompass loneliness and longing, love, companionship, separation, and even quiet sad reflection—all occurring on a snowy winter night in an intimate fire-lit cabin setting, which should be filled with warm companionship, but it’s not.
 
 Song For a Winter’s Night by Gordon Lightfoot
 
The lamp is burnin' low upon my table top
The snow is softly falling,
The air is still within the silence of my room
I hear your voice softly calling.
If I could only have you near
To breathe a sigh or two,
I would be happy just to hold the hands I love
Upon this winter night with you.

The smoke is rising in the shadows overhead
My glass is almost empty,
I read again between the lines upon each page
The words of love you sent me.

If I could know within my heart
That you were lonely too,
I would be happy just to hold the hands I love
On this winter night with you.

The fire is dying now, my lamp is growing dim,
The shades of night are liftin'.
The morning light steals across my windowpane
Where webs of snow are driftin'.

If I could only have you near
To breathe a sigh or two,
I would be happy just to hold the hands I love
Upon this winter night with you,
And to be once again with with you.

            I always tried to present this poem to students on a wintery day following a winter’s night snowstorm. A simple activity was to list all of the words in this poem that start with the letter “s”
and think about what falling snow sometimes sounds like. Sometimes I’d have students make a list of fifteen tone words that reflect the essence of this poem.
                The version I enjoyed most for this particular song was recorded by Tony Rice, a consummate guitarist and vocalist who reflected a parallel to the poetry which employed an apex of dynamic musicality that also occurred during this modern renaissance of song.  A number of other musicians like Bela Fleck, David Grisman, Sam Bush, Allison Krauss, Mark O'Connor, Jerry Douglas and many more took acoustic music to new heights during the 1960s through the 1990s where they blended jazz, classical, blues, bluegrass, folk, and even classic rock music into blistering hot yet crystal clear arrangements and recordings that will forever remain modern classics in their own right. When fantastic musicality merges with beautiful poetry, the listening experience is wonderful.
                   Even now in retirement and at home alone I’ll play and sing this song or listen to either Lightfoot or Rice perform it and I’ll relive the intimacy and emotion. And then I'll go outside on a snowy evening and listen to the flakes fall.