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The Snow Man By Wallace Stevens

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In his poem, “The Snow Man,” Wallace Stevens uses diction to emphasize the importance of perspective and its relationship to imagination. Throughout this poem, there are key words make Stevens’ points about perspective and imagination clear. In the first stanza, the speaker states, “One must have a mind of winter / To regard the frost and the boughs / Of the pine-trees crusted with snow…” After the first read-though, a reader might believe that the word ‘regard’ means that the speaker is just looking at the frost and the boughs. However, this word actually means to consider or think about someone or something. The first line, “One must have a mind of winter” is indicative of a person’s perspective. Therefore, a person must have the mindset, or perspective, of winter to think of, or imagine, the scenery of winter. …show more content…

If a person must be cold for a long time to see these wintry scenes, then they must have the mindset of winter for that length of time, too. Stevens chose to place the word ‘behold’ in the fifth line of this poem. This word means to see something extraordinary or impressive. Therefore, a person must have the perspective of winter in order to see these extremely beautiful scenes. If this perspective is not taken, then the viewer will obviously have a differing opinion on the ‘beauty’ of the

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