Poem Analysis #1

For the inaugural poem analysis thread, I thought I'd choose one of my very favorite poems by one of my very favorite poets. This poem is so unique to me because it sets out in the very title to try and describe one ordinary thing in many ways, and you will be surprised how different they end up being. Here goes.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

by Wallace Stevens

I.

Among twenty snowy mountains,

The only moving thing

Was the eye of the blackbird.

II.

I was of three minds,

Like a tree

In which there are three blackbirds.

III.

The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.

It was a small part of the pantomime.

IV.

A man and a woman

Are one.

A man and a woman and a blackbird

Are one.

V.

I do not know which to prefer,

The beauty of inflections

Or the beauty of innuendoes,

The blackbird whistling

Or just after.

VI.

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.

VII.

O thin men of Haddam,

Why do you imagine golden birds?

Do you not see how the blackbird

Walks around the feet

Of the women about you?

VIII.

I know noble accents

And lucid, inescapable rhythms;

But I know, too,

That the blackbird is involved

In what I know.

IX.

When the blackbird flew out of sight,

It marked the edge

Of one of many circles.

X.

At the sight of blackbirds

Flying in a green light,

Even the bawds of euphony

Would cry out sharply.

XI.

He rode over Connecticut

In a glass coach.

Once, a fear pierced him,

In that he mistook

The shadow of his equipage

For blackbirds.

XII.

The river is moving,

The blackbird must be flying.

XIII.

It was evening all afternoon.

It was snowing

And it was going to snow.

The blackbird sat

In the cedar-limbs.

*******************************

As you can see, each stanza has something to say about the blackbird, or makes the blackbird a metaphor for something else, but it becomes another "way of looking at a blackbird." I love how the styles Stevens imitates are so diverse. Some stanzas are extremely simple in language, while others have words I have to look up to remember what they mean. I think every writer can take something away from this poem, whether it is to emulate the tone and style of others' writing on occasion, or to try and look at something from as many angles as possible to come up with something new to say about it.

I could say SO many things about this poem, but I don't want to intimidate anyone who'd like to chime in here, so I'm going to limit the rest of my comments to the final (thirteenth) stanza, my personal favorite. This stanza has such striking juxtapositions in the first three lines. I have experienced days where "it was snowing and it was going to snow." The sky is so dim that it is easy to imagine it being "evening all afternoon." The clouds just look like they're going to collapse onto the ground they are so heavy. I just never would have thought to describe them in that specific way. 

So, what do you all think? Love it? Hate it? Wonder about something? Want to throw out an idea on what Stevens was imitating or getting at with one of the stanzas? Let 'er rip!! I want to see your ideas.