Stevens' message is revealed as the poem unfolds: there is never a true understanding of a reality outside of one's own interpretation. The author suggests that one cannot help but transfer one's beliefs and ideas onto what one sees; in this case, the "listener" projects an impression of misery onto the scenario before him. For example, the first two stanzas are filled with decorative language that serves to describe the visual image of a winter landscape. The use of phrases such as “encrusted with snow” (3) instead of “covered” with snow provides an evocative illustration of the roughness of snow. Other phrases such as “covered in ice” (5) and “rough in the distant glimmer/of the January sun” (6-7) force the reader to experience the miserable depiction of winter. These are not the descriptions of an observer who "sees nothing that is not there" (14-15), but rather the objective and poetic appreciation for the snowy landscape