The Snowman

by Wallace Stevens

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

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


Land... cold.... wind.... you feel it, feel its great ultimate emptiness. and not to think
(of any misery in the sound of the wind)
not to think at all! To see and be nothing, beholding everything that is there (nothing that is not there). Being nothing with it. That is the effect of winter snow, of cold and whiteness.
the same wind
the January sun
Stevens has seen the glitter and the stiff plants all obsinate and glazed
melancholic? Not necessarily, he only says you must have a mind of winter and have been cold a long time. That makes me numb and nostaligc.
And then he zooms out... or just focuses on the snow?
The camera movement aside, the whole world is reduced (or magnified?) to nothing.