The Snow Man

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THE Snow Man

by Wallace Stevens

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

_______________________

The Snow Man by Wallace Stevens is 15 line poem, divided into five, 3-line stanzas (tercets), in a free verse form. The poem discusses how one interprets the winter and the world more generally.

Tercet 1:

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

The first line directs our attention to the work’s theme. What does it mean to have a mind of winter? Why must we have it? It seems upon reflection that a “mind of winter” likely refers to a mind that is cold, rational, and unemotional. Thus the opening tercet argues one must be like the winter to understand and properly observe it. One should be a metaphorical snow man.

Tercet 2:

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

The second tercet echoes the first, while extending the metaphor. It is not only important to have a mind of winter, but one needs to have “been cold a long time” as well. The Speaker is arguing that one needs an extended period of cold rationality to observe the world accurately.

Tercet 3:

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Here we see the Speaker explaining why one must be “a snow man,” arguing that being cold oneself is the only way to avoid biases in interpretation. Only when one is rational does one avoid inferring misery from mere wind or the sound of leaves.

The use of “January sun” as a description is an effective way of evoking the feeling the Speaker intends to convey. There is little warmth is a January sun.

Tercet 4:

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

This stanza continues with the reasoning started in the third stanza. The Speaker seems to view it as likely that an un-wintered person could accurately perceive the environment of winter without being biased by the sound of the wind. We read between the third and fourth tercet a contrast between the sound of the wind, viewed as a negative, and the sound of the land, which seems to be the more accurate sound according to the Speaker. He almost personifies this wind as a misleading force.

Tercet 5:

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

Here we get to the point of the piece. The Speaker argues that one must be detached from the environment, emotionally, to observe one’s surroundings accurately. The metaphor of the wind, for emotion, provides an example of the creep of irrational bias. The Speaker believes that when one hears misery in the wind, one is being influenced by something irrational. This comparison could then be expanded upon by the Reader as a cation against emotional influence more generally, in life.

Is it a rational expectation that an emotional being could act as a snow man? Or is it that since we cannot have a mind of winter, we should maintain some awareness of emotional impact on our observations, and measure that impact when making analyses?

The poem also forces reflection on the part of the Speaker. How much of a person’s experience is real and how much is created by one’s own mind in the form of emotional bias?