To experience reality at its core. Letting go of all desires to make things be a certain way, letting go all efforts at control, in that state of letting go, true reality may present itself. Seeing without filters. That is what this poem is about.
To all the snobs here ripping on Al, he is trying to engage students and get them to work through their own thoughts with helpful guidance... kind of like a …. teacher? He doesn't have to read it like Sam 'Fucking' Elliot and be a hack "professor". Do you sound it out at home like that to yourself as you read it on the page? And by the way - good luck breaking this poem down... have you ever read a zen koan? It doesn't succumb to bowtie "abouts". Why don't you explain them to me in a few thousand extra words by telling me what they're "about" because you're such an amazing connoisseur of poetry and even more of an amazing teacher. Stevens is difficult - perhaps a more visceral understanding is key?
I have a whole different take. The poem is about being present. Each clause makes sense for the person still clinging to summer. He projects misery onto the wind only for as long as he is not yet a man of the present moment, a man of snow. A snow man can only know winter and thus beholds nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.
I think that this idea is pretty much what this speaker, although he must do so bumblingly, through inviting students to contribute their thoughts, is explaining. The idea of his that I dispute is his claim that the poem's "speaker" is the snow man. That doesn't make sense--first, because snow men don't recite poems, and Stevens isn't the kind of poet who typically personifies the inhuman in this way, but, more important, if the snow man is the figure who can "behold" the winter landscape without imposing meaning on it, because all he knows is winter, he is certainly not capable of conceiving of the thoughts about NOT having a mind of winter that are conveyed in the poem's language.
The students' comments are indeed painful, and the interpretation of this great poem is a bit superficial, but that's to be expected given how the whole thing had to be squeezed into a short time frame, so I don't blame Prof. Filreis for that. What I DO blame him for in spades, however, is how badly he read the poem. You must have a mind of winter to READ this poem. You need to sound cold, spare and empty, pausing, letting the wind or the bare sound of nothing enter into the gaps (really, just google Wallace Stevens reading any of his own poetry, and you'll get the gist), and instead, Prof. Filreis was reading it as though he were reading a dull newspaper article on a mundane theme. You can't communicate the greatness of poem, much less a poem like this, to anyone if you do not read it with the attention and passion it deserves. Reading poetry well is a lost art, unfortunately.
Look more closely at what they are doing there. This teacher most probably had an exhausting day...still he presses on. Look more closely at the tireless work these people do at the Kellys writer's house. You are randomly commenting on one video lesson. See the bigger picture . He has written books on Stevens and is an authority in this country. Al is an amazing reader and teacher. Look at some better produced videos. Appreciate the tireless work these people do..this is the 2nd largest free online course in history. This teaching is being made available to kids and folks in the world who might possibly never have access to a school like this...yet could become the worlds next great voice in writing. Al knows that very well and the man works tirelessly. He is about to lose his voice. He pushes himself too hard sometimes. This is hard intense work. He also travels extensively as part of the program and this course. I have great admiration for him and all the work those kids do in this program. He is also a helluva nice guy.
how annoying is this guy? Another example of how academia can totally blight the process of interpreting poetry. He treats it like a Q and A session for the ground rules at a kids summer camp. What's worse is that he thinks he is funny. I love how everybody is like, "get me the hell outta here.. we all know you know more than us mr. professor man."
To experience reality at its core. Letting go of all desires to make things be a certain way, letting go all efforts at control, in that state of letting go, true reality may present itself. Seeing without filters. That is what this poem is about.
To all the snobs here ripping on Al, he is trying to engage students and get them to work through their own thoughts with helpful guidance... kind of like a …. teacher? He doesn't have to read it like Sam 'Fucking' Elliot and be a hack "professor". Do you sound it out at home like that to yourself as you read it on the page? And by the way - good luck breaking this poem down... have you ever read a zen koan? It doesn't succumb to bowtie "abouts". Why don't you explain them to me in a few thousand extra words by telling me what they're "about" because you're such an amazing connoisseur of poetry and even more of an amazing teacher. Stevens is difficult - perhaps a more visceral understanding is key?
i actually understand this 10× better now that he explained it
This poem is about the state of being that enables a person to experience the deep
I look forward to seeing yours.
Listening to the students is almost physically painful. Kudos for trying so hard Mr Filreis.
I have a whole different take. The poem is about being present. Each clause makes sense for the person still clinging to summer. He projects misery onto the wind only for as long as he is not yet a man of the present moment, a man of snow. A snow man can only know winter and thus beholds nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.
I think that this idea is pretty much what this speaker, although he must do so bumblingly, through inviting students to contribute their thoughts, is explaining.
The idea of his that I dispute is his claim that the poem's "speaker" is the snow man. That doesn't make sense--first, because snow men don't recite poems, and Stevens isn't the kind of poet who typically personifies the inhuman in this way, but, more important, if the snow man is the figure who can "behold" the winter landscape without imposing meaning on it, because all he knows is winter, he is certainly not capable of conceiving of the thoughts about NOT having a mind of winter that are conveyed in the poem's language.
The students' comments are indeed painful, and the interpretation of this great poem is a bit superficial, but that's to be expected given how the whole thing had to be squeezed into a short time frame, so I don't blame Prof. Filreis for that. What I DO blame him for in spades, however, is how badly he read the poem. You must have a mind of winter to READ this poem. You need to sound cold, spare and empty, pausing, letting the wind or the bare sound of nothing enter into the gaps (really, just google Wallace Stevens reading any of his own poetry, and you'll get the gist), and instead, Prof. Filreis was reading it as though he were reading a dull newspaper article on a mundane theme. You can't communicate the greatness of poem, much less a poem like this, to anyone if you do not read it with the attention and passion it deserves. Reading poetry well is a lost art, unfortunately.
Look more closely at what they are doing there. This teacher most probably had an exhausting day...still he presses on. Look more closely at the tireless work these people do at the Kellys writer's house. You are randomly commenting on one video lesson. See the bigger picture . He has written books on Stevens and is an authority in this country. Al is an amazing reader and teacher. Look at some better produced videos. Appreciate the tireless work these people do..this is the 2nd largest free online course in history. This teaching is being made available to kids and folks in the world who might possibly never have access to a school like this...yet could become the worlds next great voice in writing. Al knows that very well and the man works tirelessly. He is about to lose his voice. He pushes himself too hard sometimes. This is hard intense work. He also travels extensively as part of the program and this course. I have great admiration for him and all the work those kids do in this program. He is also a helluva nice guy.
how annoying is this guy? Another example of how academia can totally blight the process of interpreting poetry. He treats it like a Q and A session for the ground rules at a kids summer camp. What's worse is that he thinks he is funny. I love how everybody is like, "get me the hell outta here.. we all know you know more than us mr. professor man."