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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe 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.
snagglepuss
(12,704 posts)I love the image of "The spruces rough in the distant glitter Of the January sun;"
Thanks for posting
CTyankee
(63,909 posts)Donkees
(31,390 posts)Zen?
"Nothingness (wu-i-wu) is the same as emptiness (sunyata) and is true "purity" for Hui-neng. According to D. T. Suzuki, "It is the negation of all qualities, a state of absolute non-ness" yet is not misconceived as a separate entity outside of a perceiver engaged in "the pure act of seeing." This "seeing" is quintessential To Zen. It is satori seeing into one's inner, true nature and thus "seeing into the ultimate nature of things" perceiving the true Mind. This seeing is termed chien-hsing ("to look into the nature [of the mind]" . Seeing is also called Prajna (wisdom), or at least seeing is with the "eye of Prajna" and Prajna is what enables one to see. Prajna allows one to grasp sunyata, the emptiness of all things, and is itself "knowledge of the highest order permitted to the human mind, for it is the spark of the ultimate constituent of all things." This ultimate constituent, the sine qua non, the quintessence, is hsing or Mind.
http://alangullette.com/essays/philo/nothing.htm
CTyankee
(63,909 posts)philosophy...maybe he did...
I prefer the interpretation that you advance in your quote. It makes sense to me...
Donkees
(31,390 posts)Well, I just checked and it seems he did
http://www.sfzc.org/the-dharma-of-wallace-stevens
Donkees
(31,390 posts)"Wallace Stevens, himself, says, "I shall explain The Snow Man as an example of the necessity of identifying oneself with reality in order to understand it and enjoy it." And in my view, that is exactly what this poem does.
Apparently a special language is necessary to explain this, however. William Bevis is our spokesperson here. He admirably succeeds in articulating this 'new' poetic language and style, naming it 'meditative,' relating it to 'postmodernism,' and finding its closest parallels in buddhist expressions."
http://knitandcontemplation.typepad.com/dao_wallace_stevens/2004/09/emthe_snow_mane.html
Hekate
(90,660 posts)snagglepuss
(12,704 posts)however I too was struck by the last line which seems to jar with the lovely winter images. Upon reflection, I think it's about heartlessness and disconnection, about people who have eyes but do not see.
The snowman (someone heartless and cold) observes everything coldly so much so he his unmoved by misery (sound of the leaves) that surrounds him.
A cold and heartless person is disconnected from the world and himself. Without emotions, a person is without a subjective life and without a subjective, emotional life a person is an empty vessal that cannot see anything beyond the material. I think what Stevens is saying is that we need emotions to preceive the immaterial world and that the immaterial world is the real world.
saltpoint
(50,986 posts)CTyankee
(63,909 posts)saltpoint
(50,986 posts)seem to be a good fit.
Here's W. H. Auden in a New York storm of some years ago:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CijcaA9yq58/Ss3bKNIAEiI/AAAAAAAADy4/kccjC5BvXrE/s400/WH+Auden+%28Avedon+1960%29.jpg
CTyankee
(63,909 posts)I adored Auden's poetry.
saltpoint
(50,986 posts)tall for me, to remind me of the power poets have:
"In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise."
CTyankee
(63,909 posts)Hekate
(90,660 posts)It is beautiful.