Winter (symbol)
The poem is set in a winter landscape, an intentional choice that lends itself particularly well to Stevens' experiment in stripping down reality. Winter's imagery creates a baseline sameness for the poem: a world covered in snow is one of nature's closest visual approximations of a blank slate. This static atmosphere, emphasized in "crusted with snow," "shagged with ice," etc., eases Stevens' transition to an imagined state of mind in which all subjective difference is erased.
The snow man (symbol)
The snow man does not make an appearance after the title, but we might retroactively understand the "snow man" to symbolize the observer in the snow. We likely imagine the playful figure of three snowballs and a carrot nose, which simultaneously stands for any human observer with the mind and soul of winter. This is a hint of Stevens' frequent ironic technique of imbuing mundane life objects with deep existential philosophy.
Wind and listening (motif)
The wind and its sounds become a crucial part of the second half of the poem. Unlike the trees and other visuals, the wind has the power to traverse distance, pulling all nature together into a single space and time, one sensory element. The many sounds of leaves and land are all one, "the same wind...in the same bare place" as the listener. By listening, the man perceives it all at once, with few distinguishing differences.
