The snow man | One must have a mind of winter

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955)

One must have a mind of winter

Language: English

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 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.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), "The snow man", appears in Harmonium, first published 1923 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "The snow man", 2007 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by George Benjamin (b. 1960), "A mind of winter", 1981 [ soprano and orchestra ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by Justin Riveagh Connolly (b. 1933), "The snow man", op. 9 no. 3, published 1967 [ soprano, flute (piccolo), clarinet (bass clarinet), trumpet, viola, vibraphone, celesta, and harp ], from Poems of Wallace Stevens I, no. 3, soprano, flute (piccolo), clarinet (bass clarinet), trumpet, viola, vibraphone, celesta, and harp [sung text not yet checked]
by Walter Hekster (b. 1937), "The snow man", 1969 [sung text not yet checked]
by Vincent Persichetti (1915 - 1987), "The snow man", op. 50 no. ?, published 1959 [ soprano and piano ], from Harmonium [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-02-11
Line count: 15
Word count: 106