The poet carefully chose adjectives and nouns to give the poem many efferent meanings.
In the first line of the first stanza he uses the noun ‘ girl’, instead of ‘ woman’, that could indicate that she is young and maybe has not had many ‘ grown up experiences’. This links in with the adjective ‘ smeared’, firstly as this girl is quite young she may have applied the lipstick badly having no understanding of how to do this task.
Or the word could take on a more sinister and negative meaning, that she had perfect or well-done lipstick which has turned into a smear after her being sexually assaulted or raped. The poet describes her face being ‘ stained by tears’, which shows she has been crying, or could suggest that the event has left a more permanent mark. We know from the word ‘ flimsy’ that she wasn’t prepared for the weather and now metaphorically she is looking for comfort because she is vulnerable.
She looks for comfort in her coat ‘ huddled’ this relates to her emotionally and physically, Microcosm-the girl represents that many bad events will happen throughout our life, Pathetic fallacy-links in w microcosm it won’t always be bad and inter will turn into spring and summer The poet uses similes to describe her fingers ‘ Finger like ice; this could take on a literal meaning or a symbolic meaning, ‘ ice’ shows that she is fragile and that she can easily be shattered.
Although this is not a simile it still portrays the image of a small girl who has had protection when she was younger, but now as she moves on through life and her protection has gone ‘ thin little fingers. Euphemism is also used to give the moral to the poem, telling us that it’s the ‘ beginning of losses’ and even though bad things will happen to you, life goes on and more things will happen.
Another example of this is ‘ the start of winter’, and even though it’s the start we all know winter will end. Consonance and alliteration are used in the title of the poem, ‘ First Frost The [SST] sound at the end of those two words leave a harsh sound which could reflect how the cold weather. The poem is a free verse poem; however it consists of 5 short stanzas.
The poem has no rhyme scheme (ABACA… And is slow moving, which connotes the way ‘ her way back alone’ .
The poet uses enjambment in first stanza, lines 3-4. It starts at the end of the third line where it says ‘ by tears’ the poet uses this figurative device to reflect the way tears run and so he runs the sentence onto the next line.
Caesura is also used to add short pauses to break the sentence, in stanza 2 on the second line. This reflects the sentences before the ‘ full-stop’, and that ice can be broken and that she is very fragile.
