Poetry explication: The Snow Man by Wallace Stevens (you can pick your own thesis/theme) - Essay Example

Poetry explication: The Snow Man by Wallace Stevens Wallace Stephens’ –The snow man- poem could be considered as a metaphor within a metaphor. Despite the speaker mentioning the snow man in the title, there is no express involvement of the snow man in the poem. The speaker uses ‘the snowman’ as an object to relay his opportunistic thoughts about the winter. Through the poem, the speaker brings out the positive face of the winter as he portrays it as being. The poem dramatizes the contrast between the acuity and reality more so in the way he considers the winter to be rather calm than stormy and rough (Eeckhout, 2002).

The speaker concentrates on the calm snow rather than the blowing wind. The speaker also contrasts the winter to the scorching January sun where the wind blows over the bare land. After describing calmness of the winter, he claims that there is nothing that is not there and that nothing is there. The statement is rather contradictory and brings about an ambiguous ending. Wallace has grouped the poem into small stanzas with each one of them bringing out a specific idea about the winter. The length of the stanzas has been kept constant with only a little variation in the word-count.

In the first stanza, he describes the physical conditions in the winter as being frost and the pine trees crusted with snow. By the third stanza, the speaker has brought out the contrasting idea of the January sun in contrast with the cold winter (Eeckhout, 2002). Further on in the fourth stanza, he describes the physical conditions brought about by the January sun. In the last stanza, he concludes by saying that there is nothing that is not there and that nothing is there. It clearly explains his idea of making the winter seem calm rather than rough as a mere mind eye.

It is also worth noting the creative connection between the stanzas. The last part of the second stanza complements the opening statement of the third stanza. The speaker has made good use diction throughout the poem. Words such as frost and boughs have been used to show the intensity of the winter cold. In addition, in the second stanza, the world glitter has been used in place of the name scorching to try and maintain audience’s attention to the winter rather than the sun. The word ‘bare’ and the phrase ‘crusted with snow’ have also been used in the fourth stanza to further describe the state of the environment (Eeckhout, 2002).

The junipers have also been described as being shagged with ice. The term ‘shagged’ brings out a more descriptive and informative imagery of the scenery. The paradoxical ending also shows the speaker’s freedom and imagination. In a nutshell, simple diction has been used to bring out concrete imagery. The speaker has made very little effort to create rhythm and rhyme in the poem. Other than the strategic use of punctuation, there is no other form of rhythm in the poem. Strategic positioning of commas for instance tries to create some form of rhythm in the third and last stanzas.

Conversely, the tactical use of commas helps in emphasizing certain points and also bringing out the hidden meaning in the poem. The semicolon has also been tactically used in the second stanza to emphasize that the January sun. Nevertheless, in the closing stanza, the comma could have been overused. The metaphoric poem can be described as an ingenious representation of the speaker’s imagination. It ends in a rather paradoxical conclusion statement which describes the poet’s creativity and resourcefulness.

The creativity enforces the poet’s idea of contrast between the reality and his imagination.Works CitedEeckhout, Bart. Wallace Stevens and the limits of reading and writing Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2002. Print.