"Boy at the Window"
Richard Wilbur
Title: Boy - young, playful, innocent
At the window - bored, daydreaming, attracted to something
Paraphrase:
Stanza 1 - The boy weeps because a snowman stands alone outside and is about to suffer through a harsh night.
Stanza 2 - The snowman does not want to go inside and melt, but he feels thankful for the boy's worry of him.
Connotation
Snowman - cold and hardened person-literally and emotionally
All alone - he is independent, yet lonely
More than he can bear - the man is suffering outside
Night of gnashings and enormous moan - sufferings for the man outside to face
Fearful sight - afraid of the stranger
Pale-faced figure - sickly
Bitumen - coal
God-forsaken stare - the man is sad and in pain
Outcast Adam gave to paradise - regretful he did not realize fortunes once possessed
Man of snow - the hardened and cold man
Content - takes responsibility for his own action, so he has nothing to complain about
No wish to go inside - man wants to stand up for his choices, and not take donations
Die - death of his self-esteem and morals
Moved to see the youngster cry - thankful for the uncalled for mercy and compassion
Frozen water - though once warm and flowing, now hard and frozen
Element - the man's character and soul
Melts - heart softens
One soft eye - a rare warm, gentle area found with the man
Trickle - very little amount
Purest rain, a tear - though frozen, his soul still has the base-kindness
Bright pane - the separation between the two, why the man and boy are unlike
Such warmth, such light, such love, and so much fear - Though the innocent boy feels sorry for the man,
fear
English: A picture of a stuffed snowman I took.
English: Mr. Keller