Richard Wilbur Boy At The Window Analysis

“Boy at the Window”
We’ve all experience innocence and lack of knowledge at a point in our lives. “Boy at the Window,” by Richard Wilbur suggests the experience that the little innocent boy undergoes is universal. Wilbur describes the snowman and little boy’s feelings for one another through connotation which deals with each point of views. Connotation is used to add emphasis to the dramatic feelings of boy and snowman, helping us picture the relationship between them.

However in Stanza 1, the speaker place us in the window looking out the pane at the snowman in the little boy’s perspective. Although, the snowman is “standing all alone,’ a remark that classifies the snowman is yet lonely from the jump. Also, Wilbur pronounced “bear” in Stanza

1, Line 2 airing that the boy is very jittery as he anticipate of what the snowman must encounter out there in that monstrous winter storm. No doubt “weeps” “night of gnashing and enormous moan,” in the understanding of the boy hyperbolizing the night of the storm, who himself fears. “Weeps” and “Night of gnashing and enormous moan,” presents the boy’s dejection as the powerful wind moved through various things throughout the night. All things considered “the pale-faced” and “bitumen eyes” of the snowman, as the little boy tearful sight can hardly hold out. Returning him such a “God-forsaken stare,” the snowman is sad and is in so much pain as the snowman is moved about the boy’s feelings.

From this point, stanza 2 takes the poem in a totally different way, however, as we now move to the snowman’s use of words which is dealing with his point of view, showing sympathy for the boy at the window as himself outside of the window.

Surprisingly, the snowman is “nonetheless content,” taking responsibility for his own action, so he has nothing to complain about because he is satisfied as a snicker. Ironically, “having no wish to go inside and die,” knowing if he go inside, he’ll melt as if the boy wouldn’t. On the other hand, Wilbur conveys the snowman’s use of various words and phrases such as “element” “trickle” “purest rain, a tear” because he is so touched by the innocent boy, he is willing to melt a little of his life to drop a very little amount of his pity for the boy and becomes emotional at the sight of the boy’s pity for him, even though he is where he supposed to be. Foremost, “ bright pane” differentiates the two of them because it has a double meaning which can be misunderstood how the connotation is used, which is told in two different points of view in the poem and unlike location.

Ultimately, The Success of “Boy at the Window,” the speaker uses connotation to create a deeper meaning in the poem. Also, to distinguish the points of view of the snowman and the little boy to describe the feelings for one another. The speaker had these two elements in mind when writing this poem showing that the snowman can represent an adult as the little boy looks at it

knowing really nothing about it, at this point in his life.