The Snow Man

by Wallace Stevens

The poem The Snow Man by Wallace Stevens.

Genres: Poetry

Unknown Binding

First published October 27, 2012

About the author

Wallace Stevens is a rare example of a poet whose main output came at a fairly advanced age. His first major publication (four poems from a sequence entitled "Phases" in the November 1914 edition of Poetry Magazine) was written at the age of thirty-five, although as an undergraduate at Harvard, Stevens had written poetry and exchanged sonnets with George Santayana, with whom he was close through much of his life. Many of his canonical works were written well after he turned fifty. According to the literary critic Harold Bloom, who called Stevens the "best and most representative" American poet of the time, no Western writer since Sophocles has had such a late flowering of artistic genius.

Stevens attended Harvard as a non-degree special student, after which he moved to New York City and briefly worked as a journalist. He then attended New York Law School, graduating in 1903. On a trip back to Reading in 1904 Stevens met Elsie Viola Kachel; after a long courtship, he married her in 1909. In 1913, the young couple rented a New York City apartment from sculptor Adolph A. Weinman, who made a bust of Elsie.
A daughter, Holly, was born in 1924. She later edited her father's letters and a collection of his poems.

After working for several New York law firms from 1904 to 1907, he was hired on January 13, 1908 as a lawyer for the American Bonding Company. By 1914 he had become the vice-president of the New York Office of the Equitable Surety Company of St. Louis, Missouri. When this job was abolished as a result of mergers in 1916, he joined the home office of Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company and left New York City to live in Hartford, where he would remain for the rest of his life.

Reviews

[MeltemSultan · Rating 4 out of 5]

"One must have a mind of winter."

I love that line more than anything, good god.

Such a beautifully expressed work of art depicting emotions and imagination. It's what to expect with Stevens.
Sheds light on aspects of reality, our perception of reality, and how we, as individuals, guide our imagination and emotions into forming our own perception of the world.

Thought-Provoking Once Again;

"For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is."

[kaya ♱ · Rating 4 out of 5]

sweet ! it is about winter, but can be translated to fit many different themes. I do feel winter gets a bad rep for being depressing or solitary, but if one has a "mind of winter," you may appreciate the barreness for what it is, just the way it comes. <3

[Vindhya · Rating 4 out of 5]

These lines gave me chills

[Frackie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reminded me of Christmas? Didn't really enjoy it that much.