Wallace Stevens

Wallace Stevens deals with two powerful motifs; perception and weather. In his poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, weather is referenced much in the thirteen stanzas. Among the snowy mountains, the blackbird whirled in the autumn winds, Icicles filled the long window, It was snowing and it was going to snow; I struggled to find meaning in all these references to winter. I discovered in my research that the blackbird has a beautiful bird call in the spring and summer months, but has a ghastly call in the winter months. I gathered that the poem is about perceptions and how they can do us much good ( the beautiful call of the blackbird) but can also do us wrong as well (a blackbirds call in winter).

A man and a woman are one.

A man and a woman and a blackbird are one.

We all have different perceptions about all things because we are individuals. The one experience that two people"s perceptions are as close as ever is with love. When a man and a woman are in romantic love, they both share the same feelings for each other.

Icicles filled the long window with barbaric glass.

The shadow of the blackbird crossed it, to and fro.

The mood traced in the shadow an indecipherable cause.

The icicles represent foul perceptions but also tell the reader that it is a prison setting. We can be so involved in our set perceptions that we can be incarcerated by them. One should always be about to change the way we look at things.

When the blackbird flew out of sight it marked the edge of many circles.

The who poem refers to winter and how it can hinder us. The line above means that the blackbird has flew away from winter and going to warmer pastures representing that we can always redefine ourselves and change the way we look at anything.

In the poem, Wallace Stevens writes about how we perceive love, religion and our lives. He is even talking about the very poem he has written. I interpret this poem differently that anyone else and tomorrow I will read it and interpret it differently from today.

Much like the Arabic tales...Wallace Stevens is talking about everything in his poems and he is also talking about nothing.

Source Material

Chapman, Jeremy. " Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird: An Analysis." 13 July 2008.

Vendler, Helen. Modern American Poetry. "On 'Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.' 13 July 2008.

The Medieval Bestiary. "Blackbird." 13 July 2008.