Everdeen 1
Katniss Everdeen
Dr. Murphy
Honors 9th Lit—2nd
26 February 2014
Poetry Analysis: “Boy at the Window”
“Boy at the Window” by Richard Wilbur is a narrative poem about a boy and a snowman.
The poem is written in two octaves. The rhyme scheme is ABBABCBC. The meter is
predominantly iambic pentameter.
In the poem, Wilbur seems to understand the feelings of both children and adults, as
indicated by his choice of speaker and subjects. The speaker of the poem is a third-person
omniscient narrator. At the beginning of the poem, Wilbur explains that a “small boy” is crying
because he sees a snowman “standing all alone” (lines 3, 1). The small boy imagines that the
snowman feels like “outcast Adam” because he has been left by himself in the cold (line 8). The
second stanza shifts to the snowman’s perspective. The snowman, the reader learns, feels
“content” to be outside because he knows he will melt if he goes inside (line 9). The snowman,
however, is touched because of the boy’s concern for him. He “melts” a tear “of the purest rain”
for the boy (lines 13-14). He worries because the boy feels “so much fear” (line 16).
Wilbur also uses literary devices that appeal to the reader’s sense of sympathy. The most
obvious example of personification in the poem is that of the snowman who has thoughts and is
able to cry. This personification is especially significant because it allows the reader to connect
the snowman to the feeling of sympathy that he wants his reader to have. Wilbur also alludes to
the Biblical Adam in the Book of Genesis when he says the boy thinks the snowman feels “as
outcast Adam” (line 8). Wilbur uses visual imagery with the “God-forsaken stare” the boy
imagines the snowman gives him (line 7). This imagery shows that the boy thinks the snowman
has facial expressions and, thus, emotions, a though that allows the reader to feel sorry for the
boy. He also uses auditory imagery when he says the boy cries because he hears the “wind
prepare / a night of gnashings and enormous moan” (lines 3-4). Wilbur uses alliteration in the
first line of the poem: “Seeing the snowman standing . . .” (line 1). He also uses onomatopoeia
with the word “moan” (line 4). The onomatopoeia allows the reader to feel what the boy
imagines the snowman feels, increasing the reader’s sympathy for both the boy and the
snowman. The speaker’s tone is sympathetic. He uses “weeps” instead of “cries” or “whines” to
describe the boy’s emotions (line 3). The reader’s mood is one of sympathy also: the feelings of
both the boy and the snowman are touching.
Wilbur uses his poem to teach an important lesson. Wilbur’s theme in the poem is that it
is natural and good for people to feel compassion for one another. He touches the reader by
allowing the boy to cry for the snowman and the snowman to cry for the boy, reminding
everyone that people should care for one another.
Note: I single-spaced to fit this example on one page, but you
should double-space your poetry analysis.