The trouble with snowmen

'The trouble with snowmen,'

Said my father one year

'They are no sooner made → winter is at the end of the year?

than they just disappear.

I'll build you a snowman

And I'll build it to last → snowmen typically melt after winter, but here it lasts.

Add sand and cement → survive through the hotter seasons eg. summer. which in real life it would melt

And then have it cast.→ meaning of cast: an object made by shaping molten metal or similar material in a mould = that it would last and stay in that shape and form forever.

And so every winter,'

He went on to explain

'You shall have a snowman → is it a gift for his son? Why must he make a snowman everytime? is it to maintain his youth?

Be it sunshine or rain.'

And that snowman still stands

Though my father is gone → passed on

Out there in the garden

Like an unmarked gravestone. → undisturbed; be it winter or summer

Staring up at the house

Gross and misshapen → snowmen is tortured and wants to pass on.

As if waiting for something

Bad to happen. → it is counted as bad in the persona's perspective

For as the years pass

And I grow older → began to understand and mature

When summers seem short

And winters colder. → winter: depressing season

The snowmen I envy→ envy those who can easily let the snowmen go and destroy it as the snowmen was a very significant thing to the persona where his many memories of he and his father are created.

As I watch children play

Are the ones that are made 
And then fade away.

Roger McGough

Poem analysis

This poem is about a snowmen that is not only just a normal ordinary snowmen but a snowmen that is of huge significance to the persona. This snowmen is an object of remembrance to the persona as his father has passed on which can be seen from, "though my father is gone" and it is the only thing and memory of his father he has left because his father built it for him. In stanza 5, it can be seen that the snowmen was "gross and misshapen", probably because it felt tortured and wanted to pass on. But the author said below "Bad to happen" the word bad here is from the persona's point of view, he considered it bad if the snowmen has to be erased and 'moved on' because he is unable to let go and erase the memories the only thing that is left of his father. He also does not want to disappoint his father as the father said in stanza 2, "I'll build you a snowman and I'll build it to last." the father's purpose of building the snowman for the persona was for it to last, "be it sunshine or rain" thus causing the persona to not being able to destroy it despite the snowman being gross and misshapen.
In stanza 7, the persona said that, "envy as I watch children play are the ones that are made and then fade away." it can be see here that the persona is envious at how easily the children let their snowman fade away while he was still stuck in the past. The line "are the ones that are made" also tells us that probably it is like a human; a soul that passes on when its time and the memories will eventually die together with them.
Therefore this poem gives off a very nostalgic feeling, especially for the persona as the snowmen symbolises and reflects his father.