What is an analysis of this poem and what does the poet mean to express by it?

"The Snow Man" is one of Stevens' best-known poems and one his most talked about. Though the poem is short, it is powerful and provocative. The poem's last stanza is a strong statement that seems almost existential in its imagery, question the nature of existence:

For the listener, who listens in the snow, 

And, nothing himself, beholds 

Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

The poem describes a snow man that presumably the speaker is looking at, but also is comparing a human being with qualities of a snow man: with a "mind of winter" who has "been cold a long time." At the end, we see that the snow man is "nothing" but is also a listener; and because he is nothing he can see everything, i.e. "beholds nothing that is not there." He also can contemplate the emptiness of existence, i.e. "the nothing that is." The final line's parallel construction and rhythm also suggests that the world is at once full and empty, and that we can perceive everything, or nothing, as we choose. But this dual way of seeing and hearing seems to be what the snowman naturally embodies, and the speaker contemplates this.

"The Snow Man" been called "the best short poem in the English language" and its simple structure and word choices allow the rhythms to stand out. The word "and" repeats in ways that continue an idea that could easily have ended with the previous word, encouraging the reader to consider the words more carefully, to comprehend what has just been read before moving on.