Assess The Concept Of True Nothingness In The Snow Man By Wallace Stevens

Mason Ochocki
Through the Eyes of a Snow Man
Many people have a very positive connotation with the word “snowman”. For most, it summons memories of asking Mom for carrots or some spare buttons, and of rolling giant snowballs into a form that resembles a giant ant more so than an actual human being. Such is not the case with the Wallace Stevens poem, The Snow Man. No warm and fuzzy feelings are recalled in a close reading of this single sentence poem. Here, the snowman functions as a metaphor of a metaphor, a device that seems to be frequently used in Romantic poetry. The snowman represents the “mind of winter”, which relates to the abstract concept of true nothingness. Through the use of the image of the snowman, Stevens crafts a poem that
Stevens touches upon it by referring to “the nothing that is”, but it seems as though it is part of a much greater idea. From a rational standpoint, one would assume that “nothing” is merely the absence of “something”. In this poem, however, nothing is something tangible. It is something that exists within the world of the snowman and it cannot be ignored. This leads to the conclusion that true nothingness, as a concept, cannot really exist. The human race exists in a universe where what is perceived with senses and basic instinct is the only thing that can be relied upon. The limits of reality are largely unknown to anyone, and therefore ruling out any possibilities would be irrational. In order for true nothing to actually exist, it can’t exist. How does one differentiate the nothing to be, from the nothing that never was? It would seem, in large part, that the speaker is pondering this question while looking at a snowman. The existence of an actual snowman within the poem is debatable, as it might just be a clever metaphor evoked by the title. Either way, it doesn’t really affect the meaning, just the image that comes to mind when reflecting on the scene. This may be because it is worth noting that the poem’s title is “The Snow Man”. This is interesting because, typically, the word “snowman” is one word and not two. This would suggest that it isn’t really referring to a mock human sculpture made out of large snowballs, but rather an actual man standing in the open