A Perspective Mind: The Snow Man, By Wallace Stevens
A Perspective Mind When viewing the world does one really stop and think, how much of this is real, and how much is just our own unique projections onto it? In the poem, The Snow Man, by Wallace Stevens, the poet informs the reader what it means to have a “mind of winter,” when gazing upon a scene in nature. The question then arises is what does it mean to have mind of winter? Stevens is not exactly asking, but instead telling the “listener,” that to behold something with a mind of winter, is to see it with absolutely no imagination, or humanistic aspect connected to it. That would then alter the scene and add more then to what it is. Imagination is what makes the world all much more then what it truly is. The speaker of the poem
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sees through these two realities that he is debating over. The emotionless reality of looking upon the landscape as it solely is, and the perspective reality that humans connect to the landscape. So then this brings up the question of is it humanly possibly to view something with a mind of winter. The answer is no, so Stevens is then describing to us something that is not possible. For Stevens this is neither a good or bad thing. It just is. Perspectivism is the philosophical view that all ideations take place from certain perspectives. This is the reality that exists in the world according to Stevens, and the only reality achievable. The poem opens with “One must have a mind of winter,” and then spends most of the poem conveying with this separate reality means. According to Stevens, it is when the landscape can be seen for what it truly is. Stevens is not using the word “must” in force, but instead rather to inform how a mind of winter is achieved. The unknown figure in this mind of winter views the “pine trees crusted with snow,” and the “junipers shagged with ice,” with absolute no perspective connected to the scene. If the speaker were to have the perspective mind he would find some “misery in the sound of a few leaves.” The person does not feel this misery (or any other feeling) not because he wants to, but because he can’t. So just who is this character that achieved the impossible? The answer lies in the title of the poem, The Snow Man. The snow man can have a mind of winter because he is not a human. He does not attach any humanistic emotions to the landscape, or alter the scene with his perspectives and imagination. The wind is just the wind to the snow man, but to a human it can be whatever they choose it to be. The wind is not miserable, but instead the human is miserable in the wind. It as simple as if you are human, then you cannot have a mind of winter. This is neither good nor bad to have a perspective mind, but its just reality.
The poem begins with a winter scene perhaps in the woods with “snow” and “junipers,” being the setting. The scene then takes a turn with the mentioning of “a few leaves,” and the mentioning of the land that is, “full of the same wind / that is blowing in the same place.” Stevens begins with the description of a snowy beautiful scene, and then strips it down to an almost bleak image of the scene. It is because of the perspective of another listener that causes this change in scenery. In fact the scenery does not in fact change, but instead the perspective changes. The word “same” assures us that it is indeed the same landscape, but now the human’s perspective mind is being projected onto the scene. The junipers and snow are gone and were left with this desolate image of a bare land. This new listener does not have a mind of winter, but instead has a mind of perspectives, so we can assume its human. When he views the same scene that the listener with the mind of winter sees, the description is changed to a “bare place.” This listener may see winter as bitter cold, or dismal in their eyes, so the scene changes to the perspective of the new listener. These projections are not true as nothing really is true when dealing with perspectivsm, but they are the only way of “beholding” something such as the landscape can be viewed, according to Stevens.
Stevens is a firm believer that the only way to see something is through unique perspectives.
These perspectives alter reality (in this case the landscape) to something that it is not. The poem ends with the speaker ending his projection onto the world, and simply seeing the world as is. “For the listener who listens in the snow/ And, nothing himself, beholds/ Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.” In theses last stanzas the “listener” has stopped projecting himself into the world. When this is done he is able to see the world as it is, nothing. If he is able to understand that nothing exists, without the projections that humans apply to it, then and only then is he able to behold “the nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.” He is then nothing himself. Stevens reiterates this overall theme of perspectivism in writing "The world about us would be desolate except for the world within us." The world being our imagination is something that cannot be suppressed, as our conscience will always be with humans. This being the case, the world becomes more then just landscape when viewed with the perspectivism that Stevens writes of. It takes on whatever the listener views it as. A tree can never be just a tree, or the wind just the wind. We create our own world in our own imagination. So in that sense there are billions of different world perspectives. If the mind of winter were the one true reality, then there would be the only one world
viewed. Stevens does not want the listener to see the perspective and mind of winter realities as good or bad. Since only one of them is achievable there is no reason to anguish over the two realities. Just as a tree is a tree, the perceptive reality is the only reality there is. The mind of winter is then something that shouldn’t be strived for. Stevens said of imagination “It does not seem possible to say of the imagination that it has a certain characteristic which of itself give it a certain single value as, good or evil.” In the poem then when the listener is seeing nature as it truly is nothing this not good or evil. So to take in each own perspective is also neither good nor evil. It simply is the way reality is, and would be the according to Stevens as absurd as to say “reason is good or evil.” The winter scene in the poem is neither beautiful nor ugly in the mind of winter, but instead it is nothing. The reality in the poem though is that one cannot achieve this, because the imagination or consciousness will always create their own world, to the world that is already simply there. If there ever comes a time when the listener is able to see things without perspective is when everything ends. This is why this shouldn’t be strived for because no one would want to be the snowman. The snow man is stripped of everything that makes someone human. The imagination that we connect to all our surrounding is not a curse, but a gift. Stevens offers the reader a glimpse into a different reality that is not attainable, but instead should help one think about there own projections that they caste onto the world everyday. The world would be nothing, as Stevens said without the perspective reality that we connect to it.
In the poem The Snow Man, Stevens delves into the philosophical themes of perspectivism versus reality. Stevens takes us into the mind of something that is different from us in that it doesn’t have any projections onto the world like humans do. It sees the “junipers shagged with ice,” with absolutely no imagination or humanistic emotion attached to that image. To be able to this would then mean to be stripped of everything that makes a human, human. The mind to project there own perspectives onto a landscape such a snowy land in this case is not a true viewing of the image, but it is the only way to be done. If everyone suddenly had the mind of winter, that Stevens alludes to be when everything would ceases to exist in many ways. This poem would not even be possible without the perspective mind that Stevens uses in order to create it. The question of how much of what we see is just simply our own imagination altering the scene to more than what it is what Stevens wants the listener to think about. Stevens offers the reader a glimpse into what a separate, unattainable reality would look like. A reality where we as humans stop creating our own worlds, onto the world that is already simply there. A reality where the listener is “nothing,” and the world around him is “nothing.” In the end though, this new reality of where imagination is obsolete, is not possible for humans to reach. It would seem that this is all for the best, as “nothing” is the alternative.
sees through these two realities that he is debating over. The emotionless reality of looking upon the landscape as it solely is, and the perspective reality that humans connect to the landscape. So then this brings up the question of is it humanly possibly to view something with a mind of winter. The answer is no, so Stevens is then describing to us something that is not possible. For Stevens this is neither a good or bad thing. It just is. Perspectivism is the philosophical view that all ideations take place from certain perspectives. This is the reality that exists in the world according to Stevens, and the only reality achievable. The poem opens with “One must have a mind of winter,” and then spends most of the poem conveying with this separate reality means. According to Stevens, it is when the landscape can be seen for what it truly is. Stevens is not using the word “must” in force, but instead rather to inform how a mind of winter is achieved. The unknown figure in this mind of winter views the “pine trees crusted with snow,” and the “junipers shagged with ice,” with absolute no perspective connected to the scene. If the speaker were to have the perspective mind he would find some “misery in the sound of a few leaves.” The person does not feel this misery (or any other feeling) not because he wants to, but because he can’t. So just who is this character that achieved the impossible? The answer lies in the title of the poem, The Snow Man. The snow man can have a mind of winter because he is not a human. He does not attach any humanistic emotions to the landscape, or alter the scene with his perspectives and imagination. The wind is just the wind to the snow man, but to a human it can be whatever they choose it to be. The wind is not miserable, but instead the human is miserable in the wind. It as simple as if you are human, then you cannot have a mind of winter. This is neither good nor bad to have a perspective mind, but its just reality.
The poem begins with a winter scene perhaps in the woods with “snow” and “junipers,” being the setting. The scene then takes a turn with the mentioning of “a few leaves,” and the mentioning of the land that is, “full of the same wind / that is blowing in the same place.” Stevens begins with the description of a snowy beautiful scene, and then strips it down to an almost bleak image of the scene. It is because of the perspective of another listener that causes this change in scenery. In fact the scenery does not in fact change, but instead the perspective changes. The word “same” assures us that it is indeed the same landscape, but now the human’s perspective mind is being projected onto the scene. The junipers and snow are gone and were left with this desolate image of a bare land. This new listener does not have a mind of winter, but instead has a mind of perspectives, so we can assume its human. When he views the same scene that the listener with the mind of winter sees, the description is changed to a “bare place.” This listener may see winter as bitter cold, or dismal in their eyes, so the scene changes to the perspective of the new listener. These projections are not true as nothing really is true when dealing with perspectivsm, but they are the only way of “beholding” something such as the landscape can be viewed, according to Stevens.
Stevens is a firm believer that the only way to see something is through unique perspectives.
These perspectives alter reality (in this case the landscape) to something that it is not. The poem ends with the speaker ending his projection onto the world, and simply seeing the world as is. “For the listener who listens in the snow/ And, nothing himself, beholds/ Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.” In theses last stanzas the “listener” has stopped projecting himself into the world. When this is done he is able to see the world as it is, nothing. If he is able to understand that nothing exists, without the projections that humans apply to it, then and only then is he able to behold “the nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.” He is then nothing himself. Stevens reiterates this overall theme of perspectivism in writing "The world about us would be desolate except for the world within us." The world being our imagination is something that cannot be suppressed, as our conscience will always be with humans. This being the case, the world becomes more then just landscape when viewed with the perspectivism that Stevens writes of. It takes on whatever the listener views it as. A tree can never be just a tree, or the wind just the wind. We create our own world in our own imagination. So in that sense there are billions of different world perspectives. If the mind of winter were the one true reality, then there would be the only one world
viewed. Stevens does not want the listener to see the perspective and mind of winter realities as good or bad. Since only one of them is achievable there is no reason to anguish over the two realities. Just as a tree is a tree, the perceptive reality is the only reality there is. The mind of winter is then something that shouldn’t be strived for. Stevens said of imagination “It does not seem possible to say of the imagination that it has a certain characteristic which of itself give it a certain single value as, good or evil.” In the poem then when the listener is seeing nature as it truly is nothing this not good or evil. So to take in each own perspective is also neither good nor evil. It simply is the way reality is, and would be the according to Stevens as absurd as to say “reason is good or evil.” The winter scene in the poem is neither beautiful nor ugly in the mind of winter, but instead it is nothing. The reality in the poem though is that one cannot achieve this, because the imagination or consciousness will always create their own world, to the world that is already simply there. If there ever comes a time when the listener is able to see things without perspective is when everything ends. This is why this shouldn’t be strived for because no one would want to be the snowman. The snow man is stripped of everything that makes someone human. The imagination that we connect to all our surrounding is not a curse, but a gift. Stevens offers the reader a glimpse into a different reality that is not attainable, but instead should help one think about there own projections that they caste onto the world everyday. The world would be nothing, as Stevens said without the perspective reality that we connect to it.
In the poem The Snow Man, Stevens delves into the philosophical themes of perspectivism versus reality. Stevens takes us into the mind of something that is different from us in that it doesn’t have any projections onto the world like humans do. It sees the “junipers shagged with ice,” with absolutely no imagination or humanistic emotion attached to that image. To be able to this would then mean to be stripped of everything that makes a human, human. The mind to project there own perspectives onto a landscape such a snowy land in this case is not a true viewing of the image, but it is the only way to be done. If everyone suddenly had the mind of winter, that Stevens alludes to be when everything would ceases to exist in many ways. This poem would not even be possible without the perspective mind that Stevens uses in order to create it. The question of how much of what we see is just simply our own imagination altering the scene to more than what it is what Stevens wants the listener to think about. Stevens offers the reader a glimpse into what a separate, unattainable reality would look like. A reality where we as humans stop creating our own worlds, onto the world that is already simply there. A reality where the listener is “nothing,” and the world around him is “nothing.” In the end though, this new reality of where imagination is obsolete, is not possible for humans to reach. It would seem that this is all for the best, as “nothing” is the alternative.