Dust of Snow 10 English Chapter 1 CBSE Notes 2025-26

This chapter from CBSE Class 10 English First Flight comprises three significant pieces: the story "A Letter to God" and the poems "Dust of Snow" and "Fire and Ice." Each segment explores different human emotions, literary techniques, and moral values, making it essential for students to understand both the storyline and the underlying lessons. The revision notes below capture the chapter’s key points, literary devices, topics for discussion, and grammar and vocabulary highlights for thorough preparation.

"A Letter to God" is set in a rural landscape and revolves around Lencho, a dedicated farmer. Lencho relies on nature for his livelihood. When a severe hailstorm destroys his crops, his deep faith leads him to write a letter addressed directly to God, hoping for financial help. The story focuses on themes of faith, hope, irony, and the simplicity of human nature.

• Lencho watches the skies, wishing for rain to nurture his crops.
• Rain comes as expected, but quickly turns into a destructive hailstorm, ruining the corn fields.
• Despite his loss, Lencho keeps his faith and writes to God for 100 pesos, believing divine intervention is the only hope.
• Post office employees, touched by Lencho's faith, collect money and send it under the signature ‘God’, but only manage seventy pesos.
• Lencho receives the money, suspects the postal staff stole the rest, and sends another letter to God to complain about the "crooks" at the post office.

• The unshakeable faith of Lencho, who never doubts God's help.
• Irony lies in Lencho’s suspicion towards the helpful post office workers, not realising they were his benefactors.
• Conflict between human beings and nature and another between people themselves, portrayed through the storm and Lencho’s mistrust of others.

• Crest: Refers to the top of a hill where Lencho’s house is located.
• Draped: Means covered, as in the field draped in rain.
• Peso: The currency requested in the letter, representing money from Latin America.
• Conscience: Inner sense of right and wrong, as mentioned about God's knowledge.
• Amiable: Friendly and pleasant nature, describing the postmaster.

These serve to reinforce understanding and provoke thought on Lencho’s feelings before and after the storm, his faith, his reaction to receiving the money, the irony of the situation, and the lesson about belief and humanity. Questions like “What made Lencho angry?” or “What is the irony in the story?” encourage students to dig deeper into the text.

• Practice with relative clauses using “who,” “whose,” “whom,” and “which.”
• Vocabulary expansion through matching storm names like cyclone, typhoon, gale, etc.
• Understanding of metaphors, for example, raindrops compared to coins and clouds to mountains.
• Usage of negatives for emphasis in sentences.

This story uses metaphors, such as “raindrops” being “new coins” and “hailstones” compared to “silver coins,” highlighting the depth of Lencho’s connection to his environment and financial struggles. The narrative also demonstrates irony, particularly displayed when Lencho blames the post office employees despite them being the true helpers.

Students can observe the use of "hope" as both a verb and noun. Multiple context usages are given in the form of matching sentence exercises, helping to reinforce the meaning in varied situations.

The chapter includes activities simulating real-life tasks like sending a money order, which help students better understand Lencho’s background. Poster making on water conservation is suggested as a creative expression linked to real-world environmental concerns Lencho faced, like drought and flood.

"Dust of Snow" is a short poem describing a moment in which a crow shakes off snow from a hemlock tree onto the poet, causing a change in the poet’s mood. This simple incident transforms a day he had regretted into something partially saved and appreciated. The poet uses nature—the unconventional crow and poisonous hemlock tree—to symbolize how even small, unexpected moments can be meaningful.

• Symbolism: The crow and hemlock tree, typically seen as negative, bring a positive change.
• Mood: The poem discusses mood changes due to unexpected, minor incidents.
• Discussion: What does a “dust of snow” represent? How is Frost’s choice of nature-specific elements significant?

This poem addresses destructive human emotions by comparing them to natural elements—fire (desire, greed) and ice (hate, indifference). Frost presents a philosophical view about the end of the world, linking it to two intense emotions. The poem’s brevity and rhyme help convey contrasting ideas powerfully.

• Symbolism: Fire stands for uncontrolled passion or desire, while ice stands for hate or indifference.
• Rhyme scheme strengthens the contrast between the two destructive forces of fire and ice.
• Engages students to think about the consequences of both strong desires and rigid coldness in the real world.

• Key themes: faith, hope, irony, conflict, and transformation through small changes.
• Multiple literary devices: metaphors, symbolism, rhyme, mood change, and irony.
• Vocabulary and grammar: Use of negatives, relative clauses, and context-based word meanings enrich vocabulary.
• Real-world application: Encourages creative tasks like filling money order forms and poster making for water conservation.

Class 10 English Chapter 1 Poem Notes – CBSE First Flight: Key Points for Quick Revision

These Class 10 English First Flight notes for Chapter 1 cover "A Letter to God," "Dust of Snow," and "Fire and Ice" in a well-organized, easy-to-understand format. Reviewing these essential revision points helps students quickly recollect the main ideas, poetic devices, and question types likely to be seen in exams. All key details from the NCERT chapter are summarized to support effective last-minute study.

Build your confidence by revising chapter summaries, literary terms, and major themes with these notes. Each important concept and keyword, including poetic devices and character analysis, is highlighted to help you maximize your exam preparation for the CBSE Class 10 English First Flight syllabus.