After our recent snow, I thought it would be a good time to utilize a saying like this one. I don’t know about you, but I stayed inside and enjoyed gazing out at the fluffy white flakes drifting to the ground. My daughter, who is here from Ohio helping with my wife after her back surgery, and her young granddaughter, Angelique, braved the elements, to make a small “snow woman” in the back yard. Our little neighbor girl came out and played in the snow with Angelique. Finally, after it stopped snowing, I decided to venture out and take some pictures. It made Middle Tennessee a winter wonderland. Since there was no white Christmas, this was the next best thing.

The concept of white as a symbol of purity goes all the way back to the fifteenth century as was expressed by John Lydgate in his Henry VI’s Triumphal Entry into London, circa 1435:

“Alle cladde in white, in tokne off clennesse, Lyche pure virgynes.”

More directly relating to the root of the simile, there were several Shakespearean references to snow as a symbol of purity. For example, in Macbeth, 1605, we find:

“MALCOMB:                                                                                                                                             'Black Macbeth will seem as pure as snow.'"

Then in The Winter’s Tale, 1611:                                                                  

“AUTOLYCUS:                                                                                                                                          'Lawn as white as driven snow.'”

If you have a phrase you would like to see featured here, please text Stan at 931-212-3303 or email him at stan@stclair.net