A family sits down to eat while a storm rages outside, and the poem catches that ordinary moment in just a few words. The title gives us the key image: the storm has "teeth," so it feels like something alive and biting. The first line adds sound. Ice hits the house with a constant racket, "busy" like a crowd of tiny workers who never stop.
Against that noise, the speaker and the others carry on with "supper and news." The line is short and flat, and it sits alone, as if the meal and the broadcast are small, steady things holding the evening together. The word "we" suggests people sharing a table, which makes the room feel close and sheltered.
The mood is a mix of coziness and unease. The speaker doesn't say they are afraid, but the sound of the ice is hard to ignore. The poem leaves us with the quiet tension of people eating and listening while weather presses in from outside.