The Snow Man by Wallace Stevens

In this poem, the speaker illustrates a barren, calm, winter landscape. The pine trees are "crusted with snow" (line 3). The use of the word "crusted" makes one think of freezing temperatures and ice. In line 5 the speaker also describes the junipers as "shagged with ice", the use of the word shag evokes an image of freezing, rough, ice. It makes the reader picture ice that has been hanging on the junipers for a long period of time, as opposed to recently formed ice. The descriptive language provides a beautiful January scene, yet the poem ends with the line "beholds nothing that is not there and the nothing that is" (line 14-15). The poem progresses through lines of beautiful imagery but the last lines leave the reader with nothingness. There is misery in the wind and there is a landscape of nothing.