“The Snow Man” Summary

“The Snow Man” Themes

• 

  Objective Reality vs. Subjective Experience

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Snow Man”

• Lines 1-3

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

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 4-7

  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;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 7-12

  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

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-15

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

  

  

  

  

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“The Snow Man” Symbols

• 

  The Snowy Trees

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• 

  Winter

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“The Snow Man” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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• Personification

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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“The Snow Man” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Crusted
• Behold
• Junipers
• Shagged
• Spruce

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Snow Man”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“The Snow Man” Speaker

“The Snow Man” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “The Snow Man”

More “The Snow Man” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem Aloud — Listen to a reading of the poem.

  • Wallace Stevens's Legacy — Read an article celebrating Stevens's life and work.

  • More of Stevens's Poetry — Take a look at an electronic edition of Stevens's important 1923 book Harmonium, in which "The Snow Man" was collected.

  • Bloom on Stevens — Listen to a lecture on Stevens by the influential literary critic Harold Bloom.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Wallace Stevens

  • Anecdote of the Jar

  • Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock

  • Sunday Morning

  • The Emperor of Ice-Cream

  • The Idea of Order at Key West

  • Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird