The Snow Man by Wallace Stevens | Poem about Philosophy | Poetry Reading in English
374 بار بازدید -
10 ماه پیش
-
The Snowman by Wallace Stevens
The Snowman by Wallace Stevens was first published in a magazine in 1921 and then two years later in his first volume of poetry 'Harmonium'.
Wallace Stevens (1879 – 1955) was born in Pennsylvania, USA. He was a Pulitzer Prize winning poet. Interestingly, Wallace Stevens was actually a lawyer by day and only wrote poetry in his free time!
The Snowman is one of Stevens's most well known poems. Despite its title, it's thought to be a philosophical poem about human consciousness. Although 5 stanzas long, the poem is technically one long sentence. Almost like a stream of consciousness. The Snowman shows us that winter and nature just 'is'. It doesn't have an imagination and it doesn't have emotions. In this poem, the man in the snow could attribute feelings like 'misery' onto the winter scene surrounding him ('of any misery in the sound of the wind') - but Wallace is saying that this feeling of misery would be purely a matter of the man's perspective and imagination. Instead, the man has a 'mind of winter'. In other words, he is cold and detached from his thoughts and feelings and that is the reason that he's able to fully appreciate the beauty of the winter scene in front of him. By the end of the poem he is so in tune with the scene that he is almost now part of the snow itself and possesses the same qualities of snow. The speaker of the poem believes that we all need to have a 'mind of winter' to reach the same state as the snow man.
THE SNOWMAN
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.
*Many thanks to CupOfTeaWithPoetry subscriber Luann @TerriblePerfection for requesting this poem and for introducing me to the poet Wallace Stevens!
#wallacestevens #americanpoets #philosophicalpoetry
Wallace Stevens (1879 – 1955) was born in Pennsylvania, USA. He was a Pulitzer Prize winning poet. Interestingly, Wallace Stevens was actually a lawyer by day and only wrote poetry in his free time!
The Snowman is one of Stevens's most well known poems. Despite its title, it's thought to be a philosophical poem about human consciousness. Although 5 stanzas long, the poem is technically one long sentence. Almost like a stream of consciousness. The Snowman shows us that winter and nature just 'is'. It doesn't have an imagination and it doesn't have emotions. In this poem, the man in the snow could attribute feelings like 'misery' onto the winter scene surrounding him ('of any misery in the sound of the wind') - but Wallace is saying that this feeling of misery would be purely a matter of the man's perspective and imagination. Instead, the man has a 'mind of winter'. In other words, he is cold and detached from his thoughts and feelings and that is the reason that he's able to fully appreciate the beauty of the winter scene in front of him. By the end of the poem he is so in tune with the scene that he is almost now part of the snow itself and possesses the same qualities of snow. The speaker of the poem believes that we all need to have a 'mind of winter' to reach the same state as the snow man.
THE SNOWMAN
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.
*Many thanks to CupOfTeaWithPoetry subscriber Luann @TerriblePerfection for requesting this poem and for introducing me to the poet Wallace Stevens!
#wallacestevens #americanpoets #philosophicalpoetry
10 ماه پیش
در تاریخ 1402/09/02 منتشر شده
است.
374
بـار بازدید شده