Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay
Form and Meter
Prepare yourselves, Shmoopers, for the revelation of the century: this poem is all one sentence. Get your gasps out now, before we dive into the nitty gritty.Now, you might be thinking, what does a...
Speaker
We're going to go out on a limb here and say something you'll probably never hear Shmoop say again: the speaker doesn't matter much here. K, thanks, bye!Oh, we should probably explain ourselves. It...
Setting
Elementary, our dear Shmoopers. This one's set in the winter.Ah, but not so fast. Sure, there are spruces and frost and boughs and pine trees and snow and January. But the wintriness of the imagery...
What's Up With the Title?
Snow man? What snow man? We don't see no stinkin' snow man. Seriously. Where's the snow man? We were kind of excited. Disappointed hopes aside, it's probably clear by now that this poem is not abou...
Calling Card
Wallace Stevens really dug certain words. He liked "purple" and "parasol," but nothing compares to the way that he loved the word "behold." Stevens drops the word twice in the poem and gives the wo...
Tough-o-Meter
Sure, it's got plain old words and plain old grammar. But the ideas here are so complicated, we thought we'd warn you that this is no easy climb. Remember, things aren't always what they seem.
Trivia
In talking about the weather in Florida and Cuba, Stevens said that "you live with your senses more than when you live in a cold place." Given how much fodder the cold weather has provided for him...
Steaminess Rating
This poem is way too cold to get busy.