The Boy and the Snowman “The Boy in the Window” is a sweet poem that explores the innocent anxieties of childhood. The author, Richard Wilbur, uses a different perspective in each of the two stanzas, creating some ironic surprises that cause the reader to think in a new way about the harsh realities of winter. By using the word "boy" rather than a specific name for him, Wilbur is undoubtedly proposing that the experience the boy is having is universal. In each stanza Wilbur expresses the different perspectives of the boy and the snowman, he also uses a structure of tone and pathos for his poem. In the first stanza, the reader is inside with the boy looking at the snowman who is “standing by himself.” ”, (1) a comment that creates a lonely tone from the start. The boy is very disturbed when he thinks about what this snowman must endure out there in the vicious winter night – wind, darkness, "massive creaks and groans" (4), characteristics clearly exaggerated in the mind of the boy who himself fears the night. and the scary sounds it makes. Seeing the “pale-faced” (6) snowman in the distance with his “bituminous” (6) or tar-black eyes makes the boy feel bad, as if he were seeing the first human himself, Adam, after being expelled from Eden. Wilbur's use of this biblical reference extends the universality of the poem's theme and deepens the feeling of loneliness in the tone and in the boy. Perhaps Wilbur is suggesting that this boy's Sunday school lessons filled him with confused and frightened notions about God's power and inclination to punish. The second stanza takes the poem down a completely new path, however, as the reader now changes perspectives and points of view of the snowman. the boy at the window from outside the house. Surprised...... middle of paper......the "p" suggesting a scary stutter. In contrast, the snowman is “moved” (11) when he sees the boy, but he is also anchored in his “element” (12) of water and “melts” a drop from his “eye gentle” (13). The “m” sounds here continue to create a calming sensation, and the softness of his eye contrasts sharply with the earlier notion of blackheads giving off a terrible look. Clearly by the end of the poem through knowledge of the structure of the poem, the reader must feel more pathos for the boy who, in the first stanza, stood alone at the window than for the snowman. In the second stanza, the tear that the snowman sheds for the boy is not sadness for himself, stuck in the cold when the boy has “warmth” (16), “light” ( 16) and “love” (16), but a tear for all children who, even in such security, can glimpse the world and feel the fear of the unknown.