Wallace Stevens’s “The Snow Man”

Throughout this course, we’ve been thinking about what the “work” of reading looks like. Because tomorrow is a snow day, I want you to take the time to divest from the “work” of reading for a moment and divulge in the pleasure of reading. Read Wallace Stevens’s “The Snow Man” for pleasure. 

After you do so, I want you to record one thought you had about the poem in Hypothesis under our group. This could be an answer to any of the following questions:

• What changes when you read the poem for pleasure as opposed to reading it “for work”? Did you notice anything you wouldn’t have caught otherwise?
• Was your reading process different when reading for pleasure as opposed to reading for work? To what extent are these two types of reading different? How do they help you to see this poem differently?
• Did you read this poem out loud or silently? How did that change your reading experience?
• What lines, words, or phrases stand out to you?
• Where do you feel a difficulty, tension, or ambiguity arising (even if you can’t name it)?
• Where were you when reading? What were you looking at? Where were you sitting? Who or what were you next to? How did this change your experience of reading the poem?
• Where did Wallace Stevens most draw you in? Where did he confuse you? Or, where did he alienate you? Where did his imagery feel familiar or unfamiliar?

You could also just record your thoughts while reading the poem or respond to classmates. The goal here is just to think about what changes when we read something for pleasure and why moments of contemplation, pleasure, slowing down, and inefficiency can be helpful values for literary criticism.