The picture suggested a section of Eliot's "The Waste Land" (in part 5):
Here is no water but only rock Rock and no water and the sandy road The road winding above among the mountains Which are mountains of rock without water If there were water we should stop and drink Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think Sweat is dry and feet are in the sand If there were only water amongst the rock Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that cannot spit Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit There is not even silence in the mountains But dry sterile thunder without rain There is not even solitude in the mountains But red sullen faces sneer and snarl From doors of mudcracked houses
References, other than to this section are:
Unreal Country: "Unreal City", Waste Land, section 3.
a single unfortunate blow: The Dolorous stroke from Arthurian legend.
We were not in Kansas.: "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas" (or something like that), The Wizard of Oz.
Then it began to snow.: Perhaps suggesting that the sequence is also a part of the Journey of the Magi.