I must have been in high school when I first sang Randal Thompson’s “Velvet Shoes” and I remember thinking that it was one of the most romantic songs ever!
The poet, Elinor Wylie, described a couple, presumably in love, walking together through a peaceful winter world. Nature is beautiful, and they walk at a tranquil pace so gently, as if wearing velvet shoes, that they leave no trace in the white snow.
Is snow white? By the end of winter, certainly not. It’s a dingy grey. But in January, in the glow of an early sunset, snow can be rose-colored; at dawn, it often is golden.
But snow usually seems to be white because sunlight is white. That makes it sound simple, and light is anything but simple.
You see, visible light is all of the colors of the rainbow mixed together. When sun shines on snow, and the light is reflected back, the snow appears white because all of the colors reflect equally.
But then it gets complicated. Snow on the ground morphs into little grains of ice. Some of the light from the red end of the spectrum is absorbed by ice, but blue light is reflected so, as most visual artists realize, snow on the ground often has a faint blue tinge.
Once in a while, on a sunny winter day, when the light is just right, particles of snow will act like prisms and cast colorful sparkles in all directions.
When I take a winter walk with my husband, I’m probably wearing hiking boots with slip-on cleats instead of velvet shoes, but on still days, it is true. “Silence falls like dews… on white silence below” when we walk in the snow.
