The Snowflake Which Is Now and Hence Forever Summary

This poem explores the back-and-forth musings of the speaker, who worries about whether a piece of writing will last and be revered over time. More generally, MacLeish ponders what it means to have life, but not necessarily receive endless recognition or visibility. The poem also questions what meaning one can make of life's phenomena that are transient, or not always within our view. The poem ends by acknowledging that life is life, whether or not that life is visible to us, or lasts temporally beyond itself.