The Snow Man Wallace Stevens Analysis

     Frost?s poem delves deeper into the being and essence of life with his second set of lines. The first line states, ?Her early leaf?s a flower.? After the budding and sprouting, which is the birth of nature, is growth into a flower. This is the moment where noon turns to evening, where childhood turns into maturity, and where spring turns into summer. At this very moment is the ripe and prime age of things. The young flower stands straight up and basks in the sun, the now mature teenager runs playfully in the light, and the day and sunlight peak before descending ever so quickly into dusk. The second line of the second set states, ?But only so an hour,? which makes clear that yet again time is passing by and that a beginning will inevitably have an end.

This poem brought me back to my home town and the wonders and beauty that it brings around winter time, and made me nostalgic with memories of past winters with my family and slightly saddened for those who have never seen the magical ability snow has. This poem reminded me that there are people who live in states where their change in seasons is not as noticeable, as the ones that I grew up with and have come to miss. Similar to many of the romantics, natures true beauty can transform the mundane into a work of art that would never have existed

The poem “That Winter,” is the seasonal poem describing the environment has changed by using imagery. It’s impressive for describing the poem with imagery. From lines 1 to 6 on “That Winter” poem:

Enjambment in the poem sets the mood. The mood is that as of a snowfall, quiet cold, settled and slow. The poem does not need to rush its thoughts into a sentence or a stanza. By separating the thoughts into different lines and stanzas forces the reader to read slowly as that of a snowfall. The reader reads the poem peacefully, which depicts the images of a peaceful snow, covered forest.

Robert Frost takes our imagination to a journey through wintertime with 
his two poems "Desert Places" and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening". These two poems reflect the beautiful scenery that is present in the snow covered woods and awakens us to new feelings. Even though these poems both have winter settings they contain very different tones. One has a feeling of depressing loneliness and the other a feeling of welcome solitude. They show how the same setting can have totally different impacts on a person depending on 
their mindset at the time. These poems are both made up of simple stanzas and diction but they are not straightforward poems.

“A Noiseless Patient Spider”, by Walt Whitman, and “The Snow Man”, by Wallace Stevens are two poems that contrast well with each other, while still sharing some similarities. The two poems take place in nature, and are about the observations of the surrounding area, with Whitman’s poem being more focused on a creature, a spider to be specific. Steven’s poem focused more on the area itself. They are both rather philosophical in nature, with Whitman’s talking about soul and Steven’s seems to be about a lack of soul. The two poems contrast in the tone with Whitman’s being more optimistic and lighter, and Steven’s being darker in contrast. The comparison will be of the two poem’s tone, and motivation.

In Robert Hayden’s poem “Those Winter Sundays” a relationship between the speaker and the speaker’s father is expressed in short but descriptive detail, revealing a kind of love that had gone unnoticed for so long. Throughout the poem, Hayden’s use of connotative diction keeps the poem short and sweet yet packed with significant meaning. The evocative sound patterns play just as great a role setting the harsh and reflective tone of the poem. Together, these devices are used to effectively deliver the poem.

Snow here could represent dullness or loneliness. Frost feels that everything or everyone around him are filled with loneliness, no excitement and everything seems to be the same. Line four in the poem says that “But a few weeds and stubble showing last.” Here it tells us that although dullness, emptiness, or loneliness covered almost everything around him, he could still see some life or excitement somewhere in between. Yet this small bits of life and excitement were nothing compared to the overwhelming emptiness. In the next couple of lines, Frost seems to have forgotten all about the weeds and stubble he saw and put his attention back to the empty, snow covered surroundings. He then looks at the woods near the field and that too have been covered in snow. He also mentioned that all the animals are covered in snow in their lairs. These two lines again emphasize how Frost feels. He knows that there are live around him, yet those life are also filled with emptiness. Soon he even realized that not only the surroundings that were filled with loneliness, but Frost himself are also in it as line eight says, “The loneliness includes me unawares.”

The poem at first comes off as a simple poem about spring and winter, but there are many hidden meanings as well. As well as the fear of the end of the world.

“Those Winter Sundays” written by Robert Hayden, depicts the ungratefulness that a young boy has towards his hardworking father. Later in the poem, as he matures, he begins to realize everything his father has done for him, and his feelings suddenly change. Throughout the poem, Hayden uses numerous examples of imagery, personification, and foreshadowing to show how the speaker’s attitude regarding his father transforms from the perspective of a child to the perspective of an adult.

In the second stanza it is the semantic field of cold: ‘winter’, ‘ice’, ‘naked’, ‘snow’. All these lexical items give us a feeling of cold which evokes loneliness, unknown, fear.

Although this poem also is connected with nature, the theme is more universal in that it could be related to Armageddon, or the end of the world. Even though this theme may seem simple, it is really complex because we do not know how Frost could possibly

why he stopped, may be he doesn’t know himself. May be, he is comparing the beauty of nature to something, but on a symbolic level, the snow strongly reminds me that the poem is set in winter, and which is also widely represented as the image of death.

“Snow Bound”, a poem describing the joyous day for a boy who experienced snow for the first time. Author, John Greenleaf Whittier uses imagery perfectly. “The blue walls of the firmament, no cloud about, no earth below-a universe of sky and snow.” The author describes the setting of the poem by his use of rich and creative imagery.

Poetry is a literary medium which often resonates with the responder on a personal level, through the subject matter of the poem, and the techniques used to portray this. Robert Frost utilises many techniques to convey his respect for nature, which consequently makes much of his poetry relevant to the everyday person. The poems “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ and “The mending wall” strongly illuminate Frost’s reverence to nature and deal with such matter that allows Frost to speak to ordinary people.