Wild Words from: Some Winter Days in Iowa

Frederick John Lazell ~ 1907

The Wild Words Project reflects my personal exploration of nature writing while hopefully serving as a resource for fellow writers and nature lovers. A commonplace book of sorts. My hope is that these harvested words and phrases may serve as seeds of inspiration for your own writing journey. You can read more about The Wild Words Project here: https://wildwordsproject.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-wild-words-project

First Snow (1890 - 1915) ~ Akseli Gallen-Kallela

Book / Essay Summary

Frederick John Lazell’s Some Winter Days in Iowa, published in 1907, is a collection of three essays that capture the quiet beauty and transformative power of Iowa’s winter woodlands, prairies, and rivers. Lazell’s writing is a blend of poetic reflection and observation, offering readers a vivid and intimate portrait of nature’s rhythms during the coldest months. His style is deeply influenced by transcendentalist thinkers such as Thoreau and Emerson, as well as the pastoral tradition.​ Lazell’s prose invites readers to slow down and immerse themselves in the natural world, finding meaning and solace in its cycles of life and renewal. ​

The essays explore humanity’s connection to nature through detailed observations of winter’s subtleties and the promise of spring. ​ Lazell marvels at the intricate beauty of snowflakes, describing their hexagonal crystals as endlessly varied and perfect forms. He finds life in unexpected places, such as the vibrant green mosses clinging to rocks and fallen trees, slowly breaking them down into soil for new growth. ​ The trembling leaves of the aspen, which shimmer in the lightest breeze, lead Lazell to reflect on ancient legends and biblical stories, imbuing the tree with a sense of spiritual significance. ​ He also captures the drama of the river ice breaking apart, describing the grinding floes and rushing water as a symbol of nature’s unstoppable renewal.

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Some Winter Days in Iowa is available through Project Gutenberg as a free eBook.
Note: These older books reflect the language and attitudes of their era and may include outdated references to race and culture.

Note: Definitions, in the context of nature, are from The American Encyclopædic Dictionary (1894), if possible. A set of 12 books I acquired from my grandparents. If phrases require the author’s context, I’ve added it in [ ]s.

Wild Words

• alluvial: (adj.) pertaining to alluvium; washed away from one place and deposited in another.

• alluvium: the act or process of washing away soil, gravel, rocks, etc., and depositing the debris in other places; also the materials thus deposited.

• azure: 1. of that tint of blue which is seen in the vault of heaven during the absence of clouds. 2. the color of the sky, soft or pale blue.

• brae: 1. an acclivity, a slope, an incline, a steep bank—the side of a hill, the bank of a hill. 2. a hill. 3. the upland, hilly, or highland parts of a country.

• bulrushes: 1. a name sometimes given to the botanical genus Typha, called Cat’s-tail or Reed-mace. Also the genus Scirpus, called also Club-rush. 2. resembling any of the plants described.

• catkins: long, drooping clusters of flowers, without petals, that grow on trees like willow, alders, poplar, birch, and hazel.

• copse: coppice; a small wood composed of brushwood or other wood of short growth, and cut down periodically for fuel or other purposes; a thicket of brushwood.

• crag: 1. a rough, steep rock; a rugged, broken cliff. 2. the rugged protruberances or prominences of rocks.

• drupe: a fleshy fruit with thin skin and a central stone containing the seed, e.g., a plum, peach, cherry, almond, avocado, or olive.

• enchantments: delights in the highest degree; ravishing with pleasure or delight; fascinating, charming.

• floe(s): floating ice formed in a large sheet on the surface of a body of water.

• freshet(s): 1. a little river; a stream; a fountain. 2. a flood or overflowing; an inundation, caused by heavy rains or melting snows.

• glen: a narrow valley or depression between two hills; a dale.

• hoar frost: dew which, having been deposited on bodies below the freezing point, itself has frozen. Hoar-frost is found, like dew, on bodies such as the extremities of leaves.

• holm: flat ground along the side of a river. Used for an island in a river.

• nidification: 1. the act of making or building nests. 2. a nest.

• panicle(s): a loose branching cluster of flowers, as in oats.

• quanks: a harsh croaking or honking cry, as a bird or animal. [nuthatches]

• rill: a small brook; a streamlet, a rivulet. 2. (v.) to run in rills or small streams

• sepulchred: lay or bury in or as if in a sepulcher. [seeds under snow]

• slough: a hole full of mire; a hollow place filled with mud; a mire.

• spray: 1. a small shoot or branch; a twig; the extremity of a branch. 2. the small branches of a tree collectively. 3. a small branch of flowers, leaves, etc.

• stratum: a bed or layer artificially made of any material. 2. a bed or mass of matter spread out over a certain surface, in most cases by the action of water, but sometimes also by the of wind. ie: gravel, sand, mud, etc., are deposited in a river or running brook.

• strident: creaking, harsh, grating. [woodpecker scream]

• tenderfoot: a novice, a young beginner; a new comer; one unacustomed or new to the hardships of pioneer life. [nature-lover]

• verdure: green, greenness; fresh vegetation.

• wax: to grow, to become, to increase.

» Colors:

ashy-blue, cinnamon brown, chocolate-hued, russet, ruby gold, ashen green, mushroom-colored

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Wild Poetic Phrases & Metaphors

• the unfolding of the first flowers of spring

• starry-blossomed

• music of bird and breeze, rippling rivers, and laughing leaves

• fleecy clouds or the silver stars mirrored in the waveless waters

• wax virile in winter’s strength of storm and snow

• the fat red winter buds, which shone in the sunshine like rubies

• brilliant plumage of the cardinal

• sable-robed king of the winter woods, the American crow

• they gleam in the sunshine like copper [pussy willows]

• wondrous color symphony

• tempered winter sunlight is further softened by the trees

• laughter of the sunbeam fairies [sound of ice crackling]

• recent rains have vivified the mosses clinging to the gray rocks

• fairy-like delicacy

• Etruscan vase-like form of the white elm

• western sky which is bathed in flame color, as if from a forest fire

• bright vermilion fades at length to misty gray

• pageant of the stars

• stratus clouds, dark and unrelenting as iron, hang across the sky

• hanging like a thick curtain across the sky

• trumpets of the sky [sound of raging wind]

• softly as the breath of morning on a May meadow [light snow falling]

• six pointed stars [snowflakes]

• fairy forms [snowflakes]

• downy blankets for the babes in the woods [snow covering plants]

• dull red torches of the smooth sumac are extinguished [snow covered]

• boundless blue of interstellar space

• finely reticulated shadows of the graceful twigs

• blue shadows on the snow

• Nature’s children

• metallic quanks of a pair of nuthatches

• flush of new life in the spring

• the exquisite melody of the hermit thrush spiritualizes the leafy woods

• lavender haze hangs softly on the forest-fringed horizon

• russet meadows are beginning to show a faint undertone of green

• far clouds, soft and white, float slowly in the azure sea

• exalted forest monarch has been cast down by the storm [fallen tree]

Wild Prose Passages

• Scouring rushes vied with evergreen ferns in arresting the attention of the rambler.

• In the timber the wind rustles shiveringly through the leaves which still cling to some of the oaks.

• Gently as the fairy balloons of the dandelion they float through the air and rest upon the withered leaves of the white oaks. [snowflakes]

• But if your spiritual ear is attentive you should catch those forest voices that fall softer than silence and speak of peace and purity, truth and beauty.

• tiny plantlet learns to draw nourishment from the breast of Mother Earth and to breathe health and vigor from the sunshine and the air.

• myriads of seeds to be silently sepulchred under the snow until earth’s easter April mornings.

• The chickadee wears a black cap with a white vest and a blue-gray coat, completing his costume with a black necktie

• pitched at about upper D and C, above the soprano staff, and timed like two quarter notes [chickadee call]

• Among these calls is a liquid gurgle, like hard cider coming out of the neck of a big brown jug. Another, and a common one, is two slurred eighth notes, repeated, “sol te, sol te”— upper G and B in the key of C. [blue jay]

• The tinkling notes of the tree sparrows sound like the music a pipe organist makes when he uses the sweet organ and the flute stop.

• “mouse ears,” shining like bits of silvery fur, along the slender stems of the pussy willow.

• The coarse, angular, unyielding twigs of the oaks give deep tones like the vibrations of the thick strings on the big double bass. The opposite, widespreading twigs of the ash sing like the cello, and the tones of the alternate spray of the lindens are finer, like the viola. The still smaller, opposite twigs of the maples murmur like the tender tones of the altos and the fine, yielding spray of the birches, the feathery elm and the hackberry make music pure and sweet as the wailing of the first violins.

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Now You…

What was your favorite word or phrase from the collection? My top one is “downy blankets for the babes in the woods.” And “laughter of the sunbeam fairies.”

Thank you for being part of this restoration project.

I’d be very grateful to hear your thoughts or suggestions in the comments. A restack or clicking the little heart 💜 for a “like” would always be appreciated.

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