Boy at the Window by Richard Wilbur
"Boy at the Window" by Richard Wilbur is a poem about a young boy who feels very sad for a
snowman that is outside in a storm. The boy does not understand that the snowman isn't real and he
thinks that it is suffering outside in the snow storm. Richard Wilbur used a lot of figurative language in
"Boy at the Window" , and mostly personification.
In "Boy at the Window", Wilbur tried to make the character of the snowman have human and
animal characteristics. Instead of putting "A night of gnashings and enormous moan", he could've simply
put something like "A very stormy night", but he used personification and it made his poem more
interesting.
In this poem, Wilbur states it from the boys view first and then the snowmans view. In the first stanza, Wilbur states that the boy "Seeing the snowman, standing all alone - In dusk and cold was more
than he could bear". It also hints that the boy was crying ("His tearful sight can hardly reach to where"). In the first stanza, WIlbur uses some good adjectives such as describing the snowmans coal eyes as
"bitumen". The best metaphor that Wilbur used was when he was comparing the stares between the boy
and the snowman as "Returns him such a god forsaken stare as outcast Adam gave to paradise." I think
that means that the boy was staring at the snowman as if he could'nt go back to him, and could'nt do
anything about his "suffering".
Towards the end of the second stanza, Wilbur uses personification to make it seem like the
snowman was crying with the boy ("He melts enough to drop from one soft eye/ A trickle of the purest
rain, a tear/ For the child at the bright pane surrounded by/ Such warmth, such light, such love, and so
much fear.") All throughout the poem Wilbur used personification for the snowman. Examples -- [1st
stanza, line 6] " The pale faced figure with bitumen
snowman that is outside in a storm. The boy does not understand that the snowman isn't real and he
thinks that it is suffering outside in the snow storm. Richard Wilbur used a lot of figurative language in
"Boy at the Window" , and mostly personification.
In "Boy at the Window", Wilbur tried to make the character of the snowman have human and
animal characteristics. Instead of putting "A night of gnashings and enormous moan", he could've simply
put something like "A very stormy night", but he used personification and it made his poem more
interesting.
In this poem, Wilbur states it from the boys view first and then the snowmans view. In the first stanza, Wilbur states that the boy "Seeing the snowman, standing all alone - In dusk and cold was more
than he could bear". It also hints that the boy was crying ("His tearful sight can hardly reach to where"). In the first stanza, WIlbur uses some good adjectives such as describing the snowmans coal eyes as
"bitumen". The best metaphor that Wilbur used was when he was comparing the stares between the boy
and the snowman as "Returns him such a god forsaken stare as outcast Adam gave to paradise." I think
that means that the boy was staring at the snowman as if he could'nt go back to him, and could'nt do
anything about his "suffering".
Towards the end of the second stanza, Wilbur uses personification to make it seem like the
snowman was crying with the boy ("He melts enough to drop from one soft eye/ A trickle of the purest
rain, a tear/ For the child at the bright pane surrounded by/ Such warmth, such light, such love, and so
much fear.") All throughout the poem Wilbur used personification for the snowman. Examples -- [1st
stanza, line 6] " The pale faced figure with bitumen