The Boy and the Man of Snow
“Boy at the Window” is a gentle poem that explores the innocent anxieties of childhood. The author, Richard Wilbur, uses a different perspective in each of the two stanzas, creating a few ironic surprises that make the reader think about the harsh realities of winter in a new way. By using the word “boy” rather than a specific name for him, Wilbur undoubtedly proposes the experience that the boy undergoes is a universal one. In each stanza Wilbur expresses the different perspectives of the boy and the snowman, he also uses a structure of tone and pathos for his poem.
In stanza one, the reader is inside with the boy looking out at the snowman who is “standing all alone,” (1) a comment that creates a lonely tone right from the beginning. The boy is very troubled as he thinks of what this snowman must endure out there in the vicious winter night – wind, darkness, “gnashings and massive moan,” (4) features obviously overstated in the mind of the boy who himself fears the night and the creepy sounds it produces. Seeing the “pale-faced” (6) snowman in the distance with its “bitumen” (6) or tar-black eyes makes the boy feel terrible, as if he were seeing the first human himself, Adam, after he’s been expelled from Eden. Wilbur’s use of this Biblical reference extends the universality of the poem’s theme and deepens the sense of loneliness in the tone and in the boy. Maybe Wilbur is suggesting this boy’s Sunday School lessons have filled him with some confused and frightened notions of God’s power and fondness to punish.
Stanza two takes the poem in an completely new route, however, as the reader now changes to the snowman’s perspective and views the boy at the window from outside of the house. Surprisi...
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...the “p” suggesting a fearful stutter. Contrasting this, the snowman is “moved” (11) when he sees the boy, but he also is grounded in his “element” (12) of water and “melts” a drop from his “soft eye” (13). The “m” sounds here continue a soothing feel, and the gentleness of his eye is in sharp contrast to the boy’s earlier notion of black dots giving off a dreadful stare.
Clearly by the end of the poem through knowledge of the structure of the poem, the reader is to feel more pathos for the boy, who in stanza one was standing all alone at the window than for the snowman. In stanza two the tear the snowman sheds for the boy is not one of sorrow for himself, stuck out in the cold when the boy has “warmth” (16) and “light” (16) and “love,” (16) but a tear for all children who, even amid such security, can glimpse out into the world and sense the fear of the unknown.
According to my perspective of the poem “The Snowman” my ideas are in concordance to David Perkins. The entire poem is a metaphor for having a mind that entertains nothingness. The snowman represents the author as a snowman looking out to its environment and feeling cold and miserable inside just like the winter weather. This snowman is unlike a normal snowman with snowman characteristics because its only use in the poem is to describe the emotions of the author towards the society or environment he is placed in. The poem is written in one long sentence which I think means the continuousness of the misery the author feels inside of him since the sentence is a run on and “continuous”. Since this poem is written in a very broad way it can be
The poem “Those Winter Sundays” displays a past relationship between a child and his father. Hayden makes use of past tense phrases such as “I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking” (6) to show the readers that the child is remembering certain events that took place in the past. Although the child’s father did not openly express his love towards him when he was growing up, the child now feels a great amount of guilt for never thanking his father for all the things he actually did for him and his family. This poem proves that love can come in more than one form, and it is not always a completely obvious act.
...n himself (13-14, 16). Perhaps, as this is the earlier of the two poems, Frost had not yet worked out the conditions and paths one must meet in order to find an inner peace.
Frost begins the poem by describing a young boy cutting some wood using a "buzz-saw." The setting is Vermont and the time is late afternoon. The sun is setting and the boy's sister calls he and the other workers to come for "Supper." As the boy hears its dinnertime, he gets excited and cuts his hand on accident. Immediately realizing that the doctor might amputate his hand, he asks his sister to make sure that it does not happen. By the time the doctor arrives, it is too late and the boy's hand is already lost. When the doctor gives him anaesthetic, he falls asleep and never wakes up again. The last sentence of the poem, "since they (the boys family and the doctor) were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" shows how although the boys death is tragic, people move on with their life in a way conveying the idea that people only care for themselves.
The first technique he uses is imagery. Frost does this at the beginning of the poem by talking about all of the beauty of nature that is around the boy. For example, he talks about the mountains in the distance that the boy does not see because he is too busy working. Another example and the most important use of imagery in this poem is the snarling and rattling of the saw. This is essential because it gives the readers a since of life to the saw. Lastly, the sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it gives the reader not only smell but also touch. All of these examples of imagery helps set the mood for the reader and puts them into the poem as an onlooker. Another technique that he uses is figurative language. The saw “snarled and rattled” is the use of figurative language and onomatopoeia because it represents the fate of the boy and the animal-like noise that accompanies the fate. Also, “Call it a day” is figurative language because this represents that if the boy was told to stop working earlier he might have never lost his and hand and would not have died. Frost also uses figurative language when he wrote “The life from spilling” meaning that literally the blood is gushing from his arm and so his life is quickly fading away because the more blood loss the faster arrival of death will come. Irony can also be found in “Out, out” when the boy laughs after his hand is cut off by the saw. This ironic because usually people do not laugh at these types of situations and have the complete opposite reaction which is usually panic. Frost also uses blank verse and no stanzas to convey emotion throughout the poem. He does this by showing the light heartedness of the setting at the beginning of the poem and is invested in the boy, but then as the poem continues he detaches himself from the emotional aspect of the situation the boy is in. For example, when is says, “Call it a day , I
The poem starts with the end of the boy's life as his body is disposed
In his narrative poem, Frost starts a tense conversation between the man and the wife whose first child had died recently. Not only is there dissonance between the couple,but also a major communication conflict between the husband and the wife. As the poem opens, the wife is standing at the top of a staircase looking at her child’s grave through the window. Her husband is at the bottom of the stairs (“He saw her from the bottom of the stairs” l.1), and he does not understand what she is looking at or why she has suddenly become so distressed. The wife resents her husband’s obliviousness and attempts to leave the house. The husband begs her to stay and talk to him about what she feels. Husband does not understand why the wife is angry with him for manifesting his grief in a different way. Inconsolable, the wife lashes out at him, convinced of his indifference toward their dead child. The husband accepts her anger, but the separation between them remains. The wife leaves the house as husband angrily threatens to drag her back by force.
“Let It Snow” by David Sedaris is a short story that magnifies the extent in which children might go in order to grab the attention of their parents. It is simply short and it is full imagination that would help the reader what it feels to be a child. Sedaris first gives the reader a sense of imagery when he describes the snow storm that cancels school for him and his sisters. After the reader begins to reread he/she might think that the story will be about a snow day but it takes a sharp turn. The story focuses on the hurt and neglect in which the Sedaris and his siblings went through with their drunken mother with the absence of their father. After being kicked out into the cold by their mother, the children are left to think about their relationship with their parents that has been left in the cold. The writer begins to express his feelings towards his parents, especially his mother by providing various details that keep the reader emotionally interested in the story. To the reader it might seem that story is about the children but it is actually focus on the mother. Also Sedaris did an
Have you ever seen snow before? That white fluffy stuff that covers the ground completely. Well if you have, I am sure you have overcome an obstacle in your life and have reached something “irreplaceable and beautiful” (102). Just like Sister Zoe had said when she saw that snow falling from the sky. This story was very enlightening because the way the author brought in herself and portrayed herself through the character Yolanda was very intriguing. She brought the subject to life in many ways. However, the author of “Snow” uses two specific elements, its symbolism and its character to prove how overtime one individual will be able to overcome obstacles. Not only does theses elements point this out but the narrator also makes an impact of the reader as well.
In the opening stanza, Frost describes coming to a point during a walk along a rural road that diverges into two separate, yet similar paths. The narrator finds that he ...
...a silence deep and white” (Line,4) they are talking about how the white snow is beautiful and, how it looks like to me this is a love of nature to some maybe not.Last one is Intuition over fact in this quote “Father,who makes the snow?” (Line,22) says his daughter, “And told of the good All father” (Line,23) and lastly “Who cares for us here below” (Line,24) he is talking about and all father which i believe he is talking about god,and this is a great characteristic for this poem.
In the first stanza, the protagonist is merely walking in the woods when he stumbles across an alternate path. Using the first person point of view, Frost depicts a clear picture of yellow woods and a character that has a choice to make as he reaches the conflict in the story and comes across a fork in the road. As the character in the story examines the best road to travel he wishes he could take both roads. In the second stanza, the character realizes that both roads appear equal, and he will only reflect later on the decision he made as the road less traveled.
These aspects help the speaker escape from reality. The snow symbolizes the purity and peacefulness the speaker feels while stopping in the woods. (4) The darkness can symbolize many different things. Some times darkness would be considered evil or dangerous, but I do not think this is the case in this poem. I believe the darkness symbolizes the undisturbed atmosphere of the woods.
Stevens’ message reveals itself as the poem unravels: there is never one true understanding of a reality outside of one’s interpretation. The author suggests that one can’t help but transfer their own beliefs and ideas onto what they see; in this case, the “listener” is projecting an impression of misery onto the scenery that lies before him. For example, the first two stanzas are filled with decorative language that serves to describe the visual image of a winter landscape. Using phrases such as “crusted with snow” (3) instead of “covered” with snow provides an evocative illustration of the snow’s roughness. Other phrases such as “shagged with ice” (5) and “rough in the distant glitter/Of the January sun” (6-7) force the reader to experience the miserable portrayal of winter. These are not the descriptions of an observer who “beholds nothing that is not there” (14-15), but rather the objective, poetic appreciation for the snowy
Frost uses symbolism throughout all his works. In A Patch of Old Snow the narrator notices the patch of snow and assumes that it is something else instead straightaway. The snow was a symbol of the winter season while it was new and white but after a few weeks on the ground it is dirty and not cared about anymore like an old newspaper, which Frost compares it to. The narrator feels at fault about the misidentification and believes that he should have been able to acknowledge the snow right away and he should have recognized the beauty of winter as well. Then the narrator says the dirt on the snow looks like the print of a newspapers so it was not his fault for making the mistake and he should not have to take responsibility for the mistake. The narrator says the beauty of winter is only present in the perfect white and n...