Secret Shout is divided into three interconnected sections, which, when read from left to right, move from the brightness of the yellow ground colour to the darkness of the black field. The lines enclosing the gestural brushstrokes generate moments of tension, exemplifying Snow’s extensive experimentation with framing.

Snow’s abstracts from 1958 to 1961 demonstrate his unique blending of the two branches of Abstract Expressionism. The first is gestural painting as a mode of emotional expression; and the second is colour field painting, which explores the expressive power of colour. Snow was more strongly aligned with the latter sub-genre, but he was primarily focused on formal concerns rather than conveying emotional subject matter.