16 pages • 32 minutes read
Linda PastanBlizzard
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1978A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“Alphabet Song” by Linda Pastan (2006)
Like “Blizzard,” this poem compares nature and the human mind. Coincidentally, it also compares snow to an alphabet, but this speaker focuses more directly on the movement of the human mind.
“Wind Chill” by Linda Pastan (2002)
This is a more typical sample of Pastan’s poems and describes a winter scene, comparing the snow and ice to a number of other objects. Unlike “Blizzard,” this poem has a gloomy tone, making the winter seem like a time of stasis. It ends with the observation that the leaves are stuck in their “coffins of ice” (Line 14).
“Sometimes in Winter” by Linda Pastan (1989)
This is another one of Pastan’s winter poems and could also be classified as Confessional. It expresses some ambivalence about being a mother, and some regrets about not being able to skate as freely and lightly as others do.
Further Literary Resources
“Linda Pastan: The Secret Giver” by Plume Poetry (2016)
In this interview, Pastan discusses the way nature influences her poetry. She describes living on six acres of property in the woods of Maryland and how being surrounded by nature can be both peaceful and isolating. It explains how her own expansive yard provides a setting for many of her poems.
Interview with Linda Pastan by Lucille Clifton (1991)
Former Poet Laureate of Maryland, Lucille Clifton interviews Pastan while she is serving her term as Poet Laureate. Pastan discusses her motivation to bring poetry to people who might not otherwise experience it. She also discusses her tendency to write poetry that is “gloomier.” She reads her poem “Elegy,” which she says she recommends to people for funerals. Later she reads her poem “At the Gynecologist.” She says that it was Confessional poets, like Anne Sexton, who made it less taboo for poets like her to discuss these kinds of experiences.
Listen to Poem
Kirk Lawrence hosts the YouTube channel BespokeVocals, featuring several videos of him reading poems and short pieces of fiction. He chooses to read “Blizzard” because it is snowing where he is at the time of his reading.
Related Titles
By Linda Pastan
