Snow

Vuong repeats the image of snow throughout “Devotion.” Snow initially represents a traumatic outside world that Vuong turns away from. Early on, snow is associated with the inefficacy of purely linguistic modes of expression and generally seems to represent the inadequacy of language – metaphorically, Vuong describes “Fresh snow crackling on the window, / each flakes a letter / from an alphabet / I’ve shut out for good” (5-9). Though Vuong has turned away from this cold, blunt trauma of the snow and attempted to “shut [it] out for good,” he also cannot help realizing it is always just lingering beyond the window pane as a counter to the physical intimacy he is choosing to share with another man: “This mouth the last / entry into January, silenced / with fresh snow crackling / on the window” (22-25). However, the symbolism of snow shifts towards the end of “Devotion” away from an...