The Snow Man Revisited
During our joint class discussion, we discussed the literary ‘experience effect’ of a poem. That is, we discussed the act of reading the poem; how the author used poetic language and the overall affect the poem had on the reader beyond the literal or even abstract meaning of the poem. This ‘experience effect’ is certainly displayed in Wallace Stevens’ The Snow Man. The author speaks of a man who is in a meditative state, who, we deduce is not an actually round, decorated, ‘snowman’ but a man who is contemplating nature and reality. When reading the poem itself, one cannot help but experience a similar meditative state that the author is describing;
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
The first line instructs the reader that ‘one must have a mind of winter’ implying that the reader plays an active role in understanding this poem. They are not simply sitting back and garnering a literal meaning of it, rather, they must assume a certain mental state if they are fully going to get into the mindset of the ‘Snow Man.’ Then, the author begins to describe image after image of winter scenes; ‘the frost and the boughs/of the pine-trees crusted with snow/ and have been cold a long time/ to behold junipers shagged with ice/the spruces rough in the distant glitter.’ It is almost as if the act of reading this poem puts the reader in a kind of ruminative state, until the last line of The Snow Man, in which Stevens leaves us with; ‘For the Listener/who listens in the snow/And nothing himself, beholds/ Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.’ The last lines of the poem lend a somber and somewhat abrupt ending to the speculative feel of the earlier lines in the poem. Thus, ending the readers meditation on the ‘Snow Man’ and perhaps, allowing them to leave behind the “mind of winter” that they may have acquired.
I agree with the majority of what you're saying in the beginning of your response, though I would argue your perspective on the ending lines.
ReplyDeleteWe are certainly on the same page in knowing that Stevens is portraying some sort of meditative mindset. It is, as you say, clear from the very first line in the poem that Stevens intends for us as the reader to recognize that the speaker is in some sort of altered meditative state, and that we as a reader are intended to join him on this plane.
The body of the poem is, as I see it, a transitional period to get the reader into that desired mindset. This leaves the end, in my opinion, not "a somber and somewhat abrupt ending to the speculative feel of the earlier lines in the poem. Thus, ending the readers meditation...", as you put it, but instead it seems to be just the beginning of our meditations. After reading the final lines, even as if they were stand-alone, one is left with a sense of awe and peace -- almost in touch with a new sense of an altered self.
For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there, and the nothing that is.